Russia has placed several Grad rocket launchers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to Ukraine’s state nuclear company.
The weapons were placed “near power unit No. 6, right next to the dry storage territory of spent nuclear fuel of the station, where they had previously secretly built” protective structures “, violating all conditions for the nuclear and radiation safety organization,” the company said. .
Energoatom said the “most likely” scenario Russia is preparing for with the power plant’s launchers is “bombing of the opposite bank of the Dnieper, especially Nikopol and Marganets… using the ‘cover’ of power units and nuclear fuel storage expenses.
Energoatom said Russia has been using Zaporizhzhia for “military purposes” since the “beginning” of its invasion of Ukraine.
“And once again,” Energoatom said, “we are calling for the creation of a safety zone in and around the station for its complete demilitarization and vacation.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily speech on Thursday that he had signed decrees of honor to be awarded posthumously to four policemen killed in Russian mines in the Kherson region on Wednesday.
“Already returning after completing one of the tasks, when they took weapons and ammunition from the depot of the occupiers, many of whom remained in the Kherson region, the policemen ran into a mine trap,” the president said. “And this is the form of Russian terror that will have to be countered for years to come.”
Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged attacks in critical regions of eastern and southern Ukraine on Thursday as the two countries fought over territory Moscow has been trying to annex in their 10-month-old war.
Fighting continued along the entire demarcation line in the Donetsk region, with a Ukrainian official saying the frontline town of Avdiivka was shelled by Russian tanks on Thursday morning.
Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Haidai said Russia had deployed more troops near the city of Lysychansk to try to capture the village of Bilohorivka and described an escalation of the Russian air offensive.
“They are bringing in more and more reserves” around Bilohorivka, Haidai told Ukrainian television. “There are constant attacks.”
In the settlement of Bakhmut and other parts of the Donetsk region bordering Luhansk, an assault killed nine civilians, a Ukrainian official said. Ukrainian forces responded with volleys of rocket launchers.
In the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, a supply route to Crimea, Russian-installed authorities have summoned men of fighting age to mobilize, Ukrainian military personnel said in a statement.
Russia has launched dozens of multi-rocket attacks since Wednesday, the Ukrainian General Staff said, along with 16 airstrikes and seven rocket attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made conflicting statements about the war’s goals since his invasion on February 24, but it is now clear his goals include some expansion of Russia’s borders.
Putin said on Wednesday that the war would be a “long process,” but said Russia had already gotten bigger geographically by annexing Ukrainian territory, a reference to internationally disputed claims he made in September that four Ukrainian provinces now do part of Russia.
“This is a significant achievement,” Putin said, even though Russia does not control all of the Ukrainian land it claims. He described the Sea of Azov as his “internal sea,” now bordered by Russia and Russian-controlled territory in southern Ukraine, including Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.
Zelenskyy says his troops will eventually drive Russia out of all conquered territory, including Crimea.
[Parte del material de este informe provino de Reuters]
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