The mission under his leadership will arrive “later this week” at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Twitter on Monday. Because of the repeated shelling of the nuclear power plant, for which Ukraine and Russia blame each other, fear of a nuclear catastrophe like that in Chernobyl in 1986 is growing.
The Ukrainian town of Enerhodar near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was hit by several projectiles on Sunday evening. As in the previous days, Russians and Ukrainians accused each other of artillery shelling. Both sides released videos showing numerous cars burning in residential areas.
Nine people were injured, two of them seriously, said Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian occupation administration. With such steps, Ukraine wants to prevent experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA/IAEA) from visiting the power plant. The information could not initially be verified by an independent party.
Possible nuclear accident feared
The escaped Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlow, spoke of a provocation: Russian troops had fired. He accused Moscow of “nuclear blackmail” because Russian troops are entrenched in the nuclear power plant. The international community fears a possible nuclear accident caused by the fighting at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Russian troops had previously reported a Ukrainian attack with an armed drone on the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. The drone was shot down and fell on the safety shell over a reactor, the Enerhodar occupation administration reported on Sunday, according to Russian agencies. The explosive charge detonated without causing any damage. The information could not be independently verified.
The Russian side implied that the drone was intended to attack a spent fuel storage facility. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe was occupied by Russian troops shortly after the start of the war in March. It has been fired at repeatedly for weeks, for which both sides blame each other. The International Atomic Energy Agency wants to send a team of experts to the nuclear power plant, but is still waiting for the necessary safety guarantees.
Launch of Russian warplanes in Belarus
According to the authorities, the Rivne region in northern Ukraine was attacked by Russia with rockets on Sunday evening. A military object was hit in the Sarny district, regional chief Vitaly Koval said on Telegram. A residential building was also damaged, said Mayor Ruslan Serpeninow. There was no information about possible victims. The information could not initially be verified independently.
Activists from neighboring Belarus linked the attack to several Russian warplanes taking off from airfields in Belarus. The ruler there, Alexander Lukashenko, made his country available to the Russian troops as a deployment area against Ukraine.
Two rockets fell in the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Sunday evening, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. An administration building was destroyed. There, too, there was initially no information about victims.
According to its own statements, the Ukrainian army repelled Russian assaults in several places in the east of the country. This included the village of Wessela Dolyna near the town of Bakhmut in the Donbass, as the Ukrainian General Staff announced in its evening report on Sunday. The Russian attack has been stuck off Bakhmut for weeks with little progress. The information provided by the two warring parties can initially hardly be checked independently.
Northwest of the city of Donetsk, pro-Russian separatists and Russian troops tried to attack the village of Pervomaiske. According to the General Staff, this attack was also repelled. In that region, Ukraine recently lost control of the Donetsk suburb of Pisky.
Dozens of locations along the frontline under fire
Dozens of places along the more than 2,000-kilometer-long front line were fired on by Russian tanks, barrel and rocket artillery on Sunday, sources in Kyiv said. The General Staff recorded reconnaissance flights by Russian drones in several places on the front.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the next steps in the war against Russia with the heads of the military and security apparatus. This was announced by the Office of the President in Kyiv. Zelenskyj also addressed the meeting in his evening video address. He did not give details, but announced: “The occupiers will feel the consequences in the further actions of our defenders.” No attack on Ukrainian cities will go unanswered.
“Zaporizhia, Orikhiv, Kharkiv, Donbass – they will get an answer for everyone,” said Zelenskyy. According to the Office of the President, the meeting dealt with the situation at the front, the needs of the army and coordination with international partners. “We have not forgotten any of our cities or a single person and we will not forget them either,” Zelenskyj said. He specifically mentioned the mining and steel city of Donetsk, which has been under the control of separatists controlled from Moscow since 2014. “The proud and glorious Ukrainian Donetsk was humiliated and robbed by the Russian occupation,” the President said. Ukraine will bring back Donetsk, Mariupol and all cities of Donbass.
Referendums in occupied territories
Russia, meanwhile, continues to seek a union of the occupied territories in Ukraine through referendums. High-ranking Kremlin official Sergei Kiriyenko released a figure on Sunday according to which 91 to 92 percent of the population in the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk were in favor of joining Russia. In the Cherson and Zaporizhia areas, which have been conquered since February, it is 75 to 77 percent. Kiriyenko was referring to surveys in the region.
“The decision is pending,” said the deputy chief of the President’s Office, according to the Tass agency. President Vladimir Putin has always said that the decision lies with the people of the region and that Russia will respect their choice.
The Russian and Ukrainian media have repeatedly speculated about referendums in the occupied territories in September. Foreign experts see the Kremlin under time pressure. The Donetsk People’s Republic is supposed to be integrated into the borders in which Russia recognized it as an independent state. However, a large part of the area is still defended by Ukrainian troops. Should the Ukraine start a counter-offensive in Cherson, there is a risk that areas conquered there will be lost again.
Russian online portal Medusa, which operates out of Latvia, reported, citing sources in the Kremlin, that support for joining was much lower. In the polls in the occupied territories, about 30 percent voted for Russia and just as many against. The rest did not provide any information.
Source: Nachrichten
