Ukraine said on Friday that it had targeted a Russian base in the town of Energodar, close to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which is now being evaluated by United Nations inspectors due to safety concerns.
“Three hostile artillery systems and a munitions stockpile were destroyed in Energodar and Kherson as a result of targeted attacks by our forces,”
stated the Ukrainian army.
Dmytro Orlov, the pro-Kyiv mayor of Energodar in southern Ukraine, told AFP from exile that he had no information but that phone communications were severely affected in the city.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, is sending a 14-member team to Europe’s biggest nuclear power station, Zaporizhzhia, as worldwide anxiety increases over its safety as a conflict rages progressively closer to its six reactors.
The Ukrainian army said that Russian soldiers had evacuated “all of their equipment” from the location before to Thursday’s arrival of the United Nations mission.
What has Russia achieved so far?
In early March, Russian soldiers gained control of the facility.
Moscow and Kyiv have both denied culpability and placed the blame on the other for repeated strikes in the region.
At daybreak on Thursday, a shelling strike on the region shut down one of the plant’s six reactors.
The Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom said that this was the second time in ten days that Russian bombardment had forced the shutdown of a reactor.
On Friday, UN inspectors spent their second day in Zaporizhia. At least two team members will stay there permanently to guarantee the team’s safety.
Thursday, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that the station had been destroyed by warfare in Ukraine.
“It is evident that the facility and its physical integrity have been breached several times,” he said when he and part of his team returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory following a three-hour visit to the Russian-held factory.
UN inspectors at Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility
The Argentine said that some of his inspectors would remain at the facility “until Sunday or Monday” in order to “delve further” into some of the findings made by the team and that the watchdog would have a permanent presence there.
“We have accomplished something extremely essential today, and that is that the IAEA will remain in place,” he stated.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to Vienna, said that six IAEA inspectors had remained and that two more would remain there “permanently.”
“Six (IAEA) staffers will remain at the facility… for a few more days before returning to Vienna,” he told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Permanently residing in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility will be two individuals.
We welcome this since a worldwide presence might debunk the many rumors regarding the nuclear power plant’s condition.
The Kremlin praised the arrival of the inspectors to the facility as “very encouraging.”
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Russian government, informed reporters that despite all the obstacles and issues, the committee has arrived and begun working.
Don’t play with fire
Thursday morning’s shelling strike knocked down one of the plant’s six reactors and destroyed a backup power source.
Energoatom said that the plant’s emergency protection system shut down reactor five.
Thus, just one of the six reactors remained operational.
Robert Mardini, general director of the Red Cross, issued a grim warning on Thursday that attacking the facility may have “catastrophic” repercussions, stating that “the tiniest error might cause decades-long catastrophe.”
“The moment has come to stop playing with fire and take decisive steps to defend this plant… from any military actions,”
He told journalists in Kiev.
Whoever was guilty for bombarding the region around Energodar has been repeatedly accused by both sides.
Ukraine has accused Russia of deploying hundreds of troops and stockpiling munitions in Zaporizhzhia.
It also worries that Moscow would transfer energy from the plant to the adjacent Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.
In the adjacent province of Kherson, Ukrainian forces went on with a counteroffensive to regain territory captured by Russia at the outset of the invasion.
The present state of affairs in Ukraine
In its morning update, the president’s office said that explosions were heard across Kherson throughout the night and that “intense combat” was taking place in two districts just up river from the regional capital, Kherson.
In the eastern Donetsk area, shelling episodes resulted in four deaths and ten injuries, while a fifth person was murdered in the north east when a hamlet was struck near Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine.
Children began a new school year on September 1 despite the war, which is already in its seventh month. However, in certain places, this meant online instruction owing to the continuing violence.
Antonina Sidorenko, nine years old, told AFP, with the distant sound of shooting in the background: “I’m glad to be back at school, but I’d be much happier if there were no conflict since I miss my teacher and my classmates.”
© Agence France-Presse