Nuclear watchdog says mission to Ukraine power plant ‘on its way’
Russian forces have controlled the plant, the biggest in Europe, since soon after the war began.
Russian forces have controlled the plant, the biggest in Europe, since soon after the war began.
Fears persist that fighting in the vicinity of the Zaporizhzhia facility could damage it and cause a radiation leak.
Fire damage to a transmission line at Europe’s largest nuclear plant caused a blackout across the region and heightened fears of a catastrophe.
Geneneral Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Ukraine’s children need to be taken care of because ‘their father went to the front line’.
The Russian military also kept up its strikes in Ukraine’s north and south.
Shelling early on Saturday collapsed balconies and blew out windows in Mykolayiv.
The Russian defence ministry claimed Saturday its forces had taken control of Pisky, a village on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk.
Prime minister Dritan Abazovic wrote on his Telegram channel that the incident was ‘an unprecedented tragedy’.
It is Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
The cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka had been considered key targets of Russia’s ongoing offensive across Ukraine’s east.
The small-scale nature of the attack raised the possibility that it was the work of Ukrainian insurgents trying to drive out Russian forces.
Officials from Russia and the separatist authorities in Donetsk said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded 75.
Fifteen people were wounded in the Russian strikes, five of them civilians.
The Russian strikes hit Ukraine’s Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, areas that have not been targeted in weeks.
Defence chiefs in Moscow said the military is intensifying its campaign.