Ukraine’s Energoatom state nuclear company said on Friday that Russian forces in control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are planning to switch off its functioning power blocks and disconnect them from the Ukrainian power grid.
In a statement, Energoatom said it believed Russia was preparing to conduct a “large-scale provocation” at the site in southern Ukraine. Moscow, in its turn, accused Kyiv of preparing a “provocation” at the site on Thursday.
“There is information that the Russian occupation forces are planning to shut down the power blocks and disconnect them from the power supply lines to the Ukrainian power system in the near future,” the statement said.
“The Russian military is currently looking for fuel suppliers for the diesel generators, which are supposed to turn on after the power units are shut down in the absence of an external power supply for the nuclear fuel cooling systems,” it said.
Russian forces seized the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, in March. Despite its capture, it is still staffed by Ukrainian technicians, though only two of its six reactors are working at full capacity.
The nuclear plant has become the focus of international attention with both sides accusing each other of shelling the site, potentially risking a major catastrophe.
On Friday, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, accused the United States of encouraging Ukrainian attacks on the plant.
“In case of a technological disaster, its consequences will be felt in every corner of the world,” Patrushev said. “Washington, London and their accomplices will bear full responsibility for that.”
Ukraine, in its turn, has accused Russia of storing troops and weapons at the Zaporizhzhia plant and using it as a base for launching strikes against Ukrainian-controlled territory. Ukrainian officials and military analysts say Moscow’s forces are using the plant as a shield, as Ukrainian forces will be reluctant to fire back at such a site.
Russia has denied the accusations.
Here’s a roundup of some of the other key developments in Ukraine on August 19.
Putin warns Macron of ‘catastrophe’ at Ukraine nuclear plant
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, of the risk of a “catastrophe” after days of shelling at the Zaporizhzhia, Russian news agencies have reported.
According to a Kremlin read out of a phone call with the French president, the agencies said Putin had “stressed that the systematic shelling by the Ukrainian military … creates the danger of a large-scale catastrophe.”
Both leaders agreed on the need to send a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the plant “as soon as possible,” the Kremlin added.
Macron also told his Russian counterpart that he is concerned about safety risks at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the Elysee said.
According to a readout sent to journalists by Macron’s office, Putin had agreed to send a mission of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the site.
The two presidents agreed to continue their talks in the coming days, the Elysee said.
According to the reports, Putin also told Macron that there were still obstacles to supplying Russian food and fertilizer products to world markets.
Moscow has blamed Western sanctions for delays to its exports, while Western leaders have accused Russia of using food as a weapon.
UN’s Guterres visits Odesa
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has paid a visit to the Black Sea port of Odesa after talks on Thursday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The UN chief said the export of Ukrainian foodstuffs did not mean the end of a food security crisis.
Odesa, one of Ukraine’s main ports, is one of three ports designated for grain shipments under a landmark grain export deal with Russia brokered partly with Turkey.
Guterres said much must still be done if the whole world were to have access to Ukrainian foodstuffs and Russian food and fertilizer even with the deal in place.
“This is an agreement between two parties locked in bitter conflict. It is unprecedented in scope and scale. But there is still a long way to go on many fronts,” he said.
“It is time for massive and generous support so developing countries can purchase the food from this and other ports — and people can buy it,” he said.
On Thursday, at a joint press conference with the two other leaders, Guterres said the United Nations aimed to “scale-up” operations under the deal ahead of winter.
The deal has so far resulted in 25 vessels carrying some 600,000 tons of agricultural products leaving Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest wheat exporters.
After his trip to Odesa, Guterres is expected to head to Turkey to visit the Joint Coordination Centre, the body tasked with overseeing the deal.
Several ships, such as the Glory bulk carrier seen here, have left Odesa with grain shipments
Evacuations in Russia following munitions depot fire
Residents of two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region, near Ukraine’s northeastern border, were taken to safety after a fire at a munitions depot near the village of Timonovo, the region’s governor said on Friday.
There were no casualties in the blaze, which broke out late on Thursday, Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The fire came just days after another ammunition depot exploded on Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which has been under Russian occupation since it was seized by Moscow in 2014.
In another recent incident on the peninsula, nine Russian warplanes were reported destroyed at an air base.
Although Ukrainian authorities have not publicly said that the disasters were caused by attacks by Ukrainian forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has tried to insinuate the possibility of Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines.
Russia has blamed the Crimean blasts on “sabotage” by Kyiv.
Russia has lost almost 45,000 troops: report
Russia has lost 44,700 troops in Ukraine as well as 1,899 tanks, 4,195 armored fighting vehicles, 1,016 artillery systems, 266 multiple launch rocket systems, 141 air defense systems, 197 helicopters, 234 airplanes, 795 drones and 15 boats, according to figures from Ukraine’s General Staff reported by The Kyiv Independent newspaper.
The Kyiv Independent is an English-language Ukrainian newspaper founded in 2021 by journalists who left the Kyiv Post, another English-language media outlet in Ukraine’s capital, amid disputes over editorial independence.
The figures cannot be independently verified, and most international assessments put the troop losses lower. On July 27, US government officials told Congress that roughly 75,000 Russians had been killed or wounded.
Russia itself has not issued recent statistics on its losses of personnel and equipment. The last time was on March 25, when it gave a total of 1,351 killed and 3,825 wounded.
More on the war in Ukraine
Russia is facing a set of severe Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. But it has been employing a number of strategies in a bid to protect its consumers from their effects, as DW reports.
The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has set alarm bells ringing across Europe amid fears of a nuclear disaster like the one at Chornobyl in 1986. DW investigates how international law seeks to protect from such risks.
tj/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)
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