Ukraine announced on Friday that it had connected the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant to its electricity grid, the disconnection of which the day before had further heightened concerns about the safety of the site. Franceinfo looks back on the highlights of Friday August 26 on the front of the war in Ukraine.
One million tonnes of grain exported
Ukraine has exported a million tonnes of grain by boat since the agreement reached under the aegis of Turkey and the United Nations to end the Russian blockade, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday evening. Since the agreement was signed in Istanbul on July 22, 44 ships have left the port of Odessa, on the Black Sea, to deliver their cargoes to 15 countries, said the Ukrainian president. Ukraine has received loading requests for another 70 boats, he added. The leader’s objective is to export three million tons per month, he repeated.
Zaporijjia power plant reconnected
Ukraine announced on Friday that it had connected its gigantic nuclear power plant in Zaporijjia to its electricity grid. kyiv announced Thursday that the plant, the largest in Europe, had been “totally disconnected” of the network “for the first time in its history”due to damage to power lines caused by “shares” of “the invader” Russian.
“One of the reactors of the Zaporijjia power plant shut down the day before was reconnected to the electricity grid today” at 2:04 p.m. (4:04 p.m. in Paris), Energoatom announced on Telegram while ensuring that its security systems were operating normally. The reactor “produces electricity for the needs of Ukraine” and “the increase of (his) power is in progress”.
TotalEnergies sells its stake in a gas field
TotalEnergies withdraws from a gas field in Russia. The French oil company announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement with its Russian partner Novatek to sell it its 49% stake in the company Terneftegaz, which operates the Termokarstovoye gas field in Russia.
This is the gas field questioned by the newspaper The world, which is based on several documents and an investigation by the NGO Global Witness. This Russian gas field is accused of having supplied gas condensate to a Russian refinery, which made it into kerosene, which would then have been shipped to supply Russian planes engaged in the conflict in Ukraine.
New Russian strikes
On the military level, the Ukrainian presidency reported on Friday, Russian strikes in the past 24 hours on the regions of Kharkiv (northeast, one dead, three civilians injured), Donetsk (east, two dead and seven wounded, with fighting concentrated in particular on Bakhmout and its surroundings) and Dnipro (centre, no casualties). In the latter region, the Russian army bombarded Chaplyne station on Wednesday.
Friday, “rescue and search operations (were) completed in Tchaplyne”, where the final toll is 25 dead, including two children aged six and 11, and 31 injured, said the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Kiril Tymoshenko. Russia, for its part, claims to have targeted a military train at Chaplyne with an Iskander missile and killed “more than 200 soldiers” Ukrainians.