Emergency personnel in hazmat suits have conducted drills to prepare for a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia power station, where Russia’s military thinks a “provocation” would occur tomorrow.
Men and women clad from head to toe in protective suites, gas masks, gloves, and rubber boots hosed down volunteers masquerading as irradiated victims, wheeling them around a supermarket car park in Zaporizhzhia on gurneys and passing them through a hospital tent on stretchers secured to a conveyor belt.
In the event of a nuclear meltdown at the Zaporizhizhia plant, which is not located in the Ukrainian-controlled city of the same name, but rather 30 miles down the Dnieper River on Russian-occupied territory, the parking lot would serve as a reception center for thousands of people caught in the immediate fallout.
The drills occurred on Wednesday, only hours before Russia’s military spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov issued a dire warning that a ‘provocation’ will occur at the facility on Friday, during the arrival of UN chief Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Ukraine.
In an effort to undermine Moscow, Konashenkov stated that Russia will be blamed for what he termed a “man-made catastrophe” perpetrated by Ukraine. It follows days of shelling surrounding the factory, for which each side blames the other.
Kyiv asserts that Moscow has converted Europe’s largest nuclear plant into a military base, stashed explosives near the reactors, and is preparing a ‘false flag’ attack. According to Ukraine’s nuclear regulator, the Russian commander in charge of the plant has instructed his soldiers to be prepared to detonate it if Ukraine attempts to retake it. Russia has taken the power plant from the earliest weeks of Putin’s campaign in Ukraine, after its forces rushed out of occupied Crimea and seized huge portions of southern Ukraine.
In recent weeks, however, fears about the plant’s viability have increased as Russia attempts to isolate it from Ukraine’s main power grid and transfer its energy to Crimea – and as a massive Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake the south intensifies.
Today, Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to meet in Lviv to discuss the situation at the nuclear power plant and the prospect of dispatching international inspectors to ensure its safety.
During his first visit to Ukraine since the start of the conflict, Erdogan will also discuss a plan to let Ukrainian ships carrying important food shipments to leave the country.
Some ships have already departed the Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, although the volume is much below average. There are also concerns that the food shipments would not be permitted to reach global markets as intended after the first ship unexpectedly diverted to Syria, a strong ally of Russia, from Lebanon, where it was originally scheduled to dock.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations, told reporters this week that Guterres’ travel to Ukraine will enable him to “witness firsthand the benefits of an effort that is so vitally important to hundreds of millions of people.”
Dujarric added that he expected ‘the necessity for a political solution’ to be discussed during Thursday’s talks.
In his nightly video address on Wednesday, President Zelensky reiterated his demand that the Russian military withdraw from the plant and emphasized that ‘only absolute transparency and control of the situation at and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant can guarantee a gradual return to normal nuclear safety.’ International Atomic Energy Agency is a United Nations organization. Russia has denied the request.
Erdogan’s administration has confirmed that he will address the grain agreement and diplomatic options to stop the fighting during the talks. Putin and the Turkish leader met earlier this month to discuss the same topics.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces announced on Thursday that they had repelled a Russian onslaught in the southern district of Kherson, while the death toll from Russian bombardment of the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine’s northeast continued to rise as the almost six-month-long conflict continues unabated.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, stated in a video that Russian forces have made only modest gains since the beginning of the month. In other situations, Ukrainian forces have also made gains. We are currently experiencing a’strategic standstill’.
The Ukrainian Emergencies Service reported that Russian bombing on a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Wednesday evening resulted in seven deaths and 16 injuries.
Zelenskiy stated on the Telegram chat app, “This is a treacherous and unscrupulous attack against innocent individuals.”
The regional governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synehubov, stated that one person was killed and eighteen others were injured on Thursday in pre-dawn bombardment of another residential area.
According to Ukrainian military expert Oleh Zhdanov, Ukrainian soldiers repelled a Russian advance near the town of Bilohirka, northeast of Kherson, in the south.
According to the south district of the Operational Command of the Ukrainian armed forces, Ukrainian forces have killed 29 ‘occupiers’ and destroyed artillery, armored vehicles, and a military supply depot.
Diplomats said the United States, Albania, France, Ireland, Norway, and the United Kingdom have requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on August 24 to address the impact of the war in Ukraine, six months after Russia’s invasion.
A succession of explosions at military stations and ammunition stores in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula taken by Russia in 2014, during the last week have indicated a shift in the battle, with Ukraine presumably capable of striking deeper into Russian-occupied territory.
Russia attributed the strikes to saboteurs, but Ukraine has not formally accepted culpability but has hinted at it.
According to a statement issued by the Ukrainian military intelligence, following the recent explosions in Crimea, Russian forces have relocated some of their aircraft and helicopters to Russian airfields. The information could not be independently verified by Reuters.
According to sources quoted by the Russian news agency RIA on Wednesday, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea navy, Igor Osipov, has been replaced by Viktor Sokolov.
If confirmed, it would be one of the most high-profile dismissals of a military leader during a conflict in which Russia has sustained huge casualties in personnel and equipment.
The historically venerated Black Sea Fleet has seen multiple humiliations since February 24, when President Vladimir Putin initiated the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow terms a “special military operation.”
In April, Ukraine fired Neptune missiles against the Russian cruiser Moskva, the Moskva’s flagship. It was the largest battleship sunk in combat in forty years.
Crimea serves as the principal supply route for Russian forces in southern Ukraine, where Kiev is anticipated to begin a counteroffensive within the next several weeks.
Since the beginning of the conflict, the Black Sea Fleet has also blockaded Ukraine’s ports, immobilizing important grain exports that are just now beginning to flow again and driving up global food costs.
A monitoring group reported that three additional ships carrying exports left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Wednesday, raising the total number of vessels to leave Ukraine under a U.N.-brokered grain export pact to 24.
The Ukrainian government stated that it intended to expand the monthly volume of maritime exports to 3 million tonnes in the near future in order to clear a backlog of 18 million tonnes of grains from the previous harvest and begin selling new crops.