(Kyiv) Russian troops have started bombing Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Posted at 7:38 p.m.
The plant is located in Enerhodar, a city on the Dnieper River which accounts for a quarter of the country’s electricity production. A factory spokesman said the shelling began early Friday.
Russian forces battled for control of a crucial energy-producing town in southern Ukraine on Thursday and gained ground in their bid to cut the country off from the sea, as Ukrainian leaders called on citizens to rise up and wage a guerrilla war against the invaders.
The fighting in Enerhodar, a city on the shores of the Dnieper River which accounts for around a quarter of the country’s electricity production, came as another round of talks between the two sides resulted in an agreement in principle to put establishing safe corridors inside Ukraine to evacuate civilians and deliver humanitarian aid.
The mayor of Enerhodar, the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, said Ukrainian forces were fighting Russian troops on the outskirts of the city. Video showed flames and clouds of black smoke rising above the city of more than 50,000 people, with people walking away from the flames, past wrecked cars, as sirens wailed.
Moscow’s ground advance on the Ukrainian capital in the north has apparently stalled, with a huge armored column at a standstill outside Kyiv. And tougher-than-expected resistance from the undermanned and underarmed Ukrainians prevented the quick victory Russia might have expected.
A senior Russian officer, General Andrei Sukhovetsky, commander of an airborne division, was killed in the fighting earlier this week, an organization of officers in Russia reported.
But the Russians have leveraged their superior firepower over the past few days, launching hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks on cities and other sites across the country and making significant gains on the ground in the south as part of an effort to sever Ukraine’s connection to the Black Seas and Azov.
Cutting its access to the coastline would deal a crippling blow to its economy and allow Russia to build a land corridor to Crimea, which Moscow took control of in 2014.
A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military matters, said Russia’s capture of Crimea gave it a logistical advantage in that part of the country, with supply lines shorter which facilitated the offensive there.
The Russians announced the capture of the southern city of Kherson, and local Ukrainian officials confirmed that forces took over the seat of local government in the vital Black Sea port of 280,000 people, making it the first major city to fall since the invasion began a week ago.
Heavy fighting continued on the outskirts of another strategic port, Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, plunging it into darkness, cutting off most telephone services and raising fears of food and water shortages. Without telephone connections, doctors did not know where to take the injured.
The second round of talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations was held in neighboring Belarus. But the two sides had little common ground at the start of the meeting, and Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine that it must quickly agree to the Kremlin’s demand for its “demilitarization” and declare itself neutral, giving up. in its candidacy for NATO.
President Putin has told French President Emmanuel Macron that he is determined to continue his attack “all the way”, according to Mr Macron’s office.
The massive evacuation could be observed in Kharkiv, a city of about 1.4 million inhabitants. Residents desperate to escape the falling shells and bombs crowded the city’s station and onto the trains, not always knowing where they were headed.
At least 227 civilians were killed and 525 others injured during this period, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He acknowledges this is a vast undercount, and Ukraine said earlier that more than 2,000 civilians had died. This figure could not be independently verified.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the West has continuously armed Ukraine, trained its troops and built bases there to make Ukraine a bulwark against Russia.
The United States and its allies have insisted that NATO is a defensive alliance that poses no threat to Russia. And the West fears Russia’s invasion is aimed at overthrowing the Ukrainian government and installing a friendly government – although Mr Lavrov has said Moscow will let the Ukrainians choose their government.
Earlier Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian ground forces had come to a standstill and Moscow was now unleashing air attacks, but they were parried by Ukrainian defense systems, including in Kherson.
“Kyiv withstood the night and another missile and bomb attack. Our air defenses worked, he said. Kherson, Izyum-all other cities that the occupiers hit from the air did not yield anything. »
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the explosions heard overnight in the Ukrainian capital were Russian missiles shot down by air defense systems.
Moscow’s isolation deepened as most of the world aligned against it at the United Nations to demand that it withdraw from Ukraine. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into possible war crimes. And in a stunning reversal, the International Paralympic Committee banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Paralympic Winter Games.
As Moscow has wreaked havoc on Ukrainian cities, global sanctions have plunged Russia’s economy deeper into crisis.
The rouble, which has crashed since the invasion, fell another 15% against the US dollar as the economy suffered another blow when two rating agencies downgraded Russia’s credit rating, saying that the Western invasion and sanctions have harmed Moscow’s ability to repay its debts and increased risks to the economy and stability.
Russia reported its military casualties on Wednesday for the first time in the war, saying nearly 500 of its soldiers were killed and nearly 1,600 wounded. Ukraine did not disclose its own military losses.
Ukraine’s military general staff claimed in a Facebook post that Russian forces had suffered some 9,000 casualties in the fighting. He did not say whether that figure included both soldiers killed and wounded.
In a video address to the nation on Thursday morning, Mr. Zelensky hailed his country’s resilience.
“We are a people who in one week destroyed the enemy’s plans,” he said. They won’t have peace here. They will have no food. They won’t have a single moment of calm here. »
He added that the fighting was hurting the morale of Russian soldiers, who “go to grocery stores and try to find something to eat”.
“They are not superpower warriors,” he said. They are confused children who have been used. »
On the outskirts of Kyiv, volunteers well into their 60s manned a checkpoint in an attempt to block the Russian advance.
“In my old age, I had to take up arms,” said 68-year-old Andrey Goncharuk. He added that the fighters needed more weapons, but “we will kill the enemy and take their weapons”.