Despite demands from other countries for all fighting near the reactors to halt, Russia bombarded communities around Europe’s biggest nuclear power facility over the course of one night.
On the other side of the Dnipro River, six miles downstream from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Nikopol was struck three times overnight.
According to regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko, four individuals were hurt in the strikes, including two who needed medical attention.
It happens despite UN demands to stop violence near the facility, and President Joe Biden called European leaders over the weekend to voice his worry.
Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia may be planning “something very unpleasant” to coincide with Ukraine’s Independence Day festivities this week, which is raising concerns regarding the plant.
The declaration of independence from the Soviet Union by Ukraine was made on this day, August 24, 1991.
Additionally, it has been six months since Putin declared war on the world on February 24, 2022.
“We must all be aware that this week Russia might attempt to do something especially terrible, something really wicked,” President Zelensky stated in a statement made tonight.
The partners of Ukraine have all been aware of the threats the terrorist state poses this week.
Aside from the potential nuclear catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia facility, Ukraine has also issued warnings about the likely staging of show trials in the occupied Donbas and the massing of missiles in Belarus for alleged attacks on Kyiv.
Zelensky forewarned that proxies supported by Russia may be ready to try and execute Ukrainian prisoners of war, including those who surrendered in Mariupol.
He said it would permanently block the door to a diplomatic settlement of the conflict.
Beyond this point, no more talks will be allowed. There won’t be any more discussions. Our state has covered every angle,’ he said.
While Russia has disparaged the troops defending Mariupol as far-right supporters, war criminals, and Nazis, Ukraine considers them heroes.
After being under siege for many months, they are said to have given up on the expectation that they would be exchanged for prisoners and sent back to Ukraine.
Since then, however, a number of prisoners were burnt to death in a prison camp in what Russia claims were an attack by the Ukrainians, but which Kyiv and outside experts claim was really a fire caused by Russian forces inside a dormitory to hide torture.
It happens as Putin’s invasion of Ukraine approaches dangerously close to a standstill, with both sides digging in and trying to maintain their land but appearing unable to launch any more significant assaults.
According to British intelligence, Russian commanders are increasingly turning to “direct financial incentives” to persuade their troops to engage in conflict, even if “certain combat units are judged untrustworthy for offensive operations.”
After seeing males who were probably recruited into the local military refuse to engage in combat in the nearby Donetsk, the UK Ministry of Defence released their findings.
The troops said they were refusing to enter a battle in Donetsk despite “threats and intimidation by top commanders,” despite the fact that Luhansk has been mostly freed by Russian forces while intense combat is still going on there.
Since the beginning of the conflict, when Crimean troops broke out and took large portions of southern Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station has been under Russian control.
Since then, there has been peace surrounding the plant, but in recent weeks, as Ukraine has attempted to drive Putin’s soldiers back, tensions have risen.
Six nuclear reactors at the site have recorded blasts, which Moscow accuses Kyiv of carrying out while Ukraine claims they are Russian false flag strikes.
Ukraine claims that Russia has placed military hardware, including explosives, near the reactors of the facility to protect them from assaults and that soldiers are attempting to cut the plant off from the national electricity system.
Because parts of the plant’s emergency systems will be dependent on diesel generators for electricity, Kyiv claims that this is risky.
Zelensky has demanded that outside inspectors be deployed to the facility; the UN is also supporting this demand, but Russia has so far rejected it.