Ukraine said on Sunday that renewed Russian shelling had damaged three radiation sensors and hurt a worker at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, in the second hit in consecutive days on Europe’s largest nuclear facility.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called Saturday night’s shelling “Russian nuclear terror” that warranted more international sanctions, this time on Moscow’s nuclear sector. Kyiv said Russia hit a power line at the plant on Friday.
However, the Russian-installed authority of the area said Ukraine hit the site with a multiple rocket launcher, damaging administrative buildings and an area near a storage facility.
Reuters could not verify either side’s version.
A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine on 4th August. PICTURE: Reuters/Alexander Ermochenko
Events at the Zaporizhzhia site have alarmed the world.
“[It] underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster,” International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Mariano Grossi warned on Saturday.
POPE HAILS DEPARTURE OF UKRAINIAN GRAIN SHIPS AS “SIGN OF HOPE”
Pope Francis on Sunday welcomed the departure from Ukrainian Black Sea ports of the first ships carrying grain previously blockaded by Russia, saying the breakthrough could be a model for dialogue to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
The first ship, the Razoni, set off on 1st August with seven more following through Sunday thanks to a grain and fertiliser export deal between Moscow and Kyiv brokered by Turkey and the United Nations last month.
It came after UN warnings of possible outbreaks of famine in some areas of the world due to a halt in grain shipments from Ukraine that had squeezed supplies and sent prices soaring.
“This step shows that it is possible to conduct dialogue to reach concrete results, which help everyone,” Pope Francis said at his weekly address to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square.
“This event presents itself as a sign of hope and my own heartfelt wish is that following this path, it will be possible to bring an end to the fighting and reach a just and lasting peace,” he said.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine together accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports.
The resumption of grain exports is being overseen by a Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul where Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN personnel are inspecting ships.
In June, the Pope appealed for an end to the blockade on seaborne exports of wheat from Ukraine, saying the grain could not be used as a “weapon of war”.
– FEDERICO MACCIONI/Reuters
Elsewhere, a deal to unblock Ukraine’s food exports and ease global shortages gathered pace as another four ships sailed out of Ukrainian Black Sea ports while the first cargo vessel since Russia’s 24th February invasion docked.
The four outgoing ships had almost 170,000 tonnes of corn and other food. They were sailing under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to try to help ease soaring global food prices that have resulted from the war.
Before Moscow’s 24th February invasion, which Russian President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation”, Russia and Ukraine together accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports. The disruption since then has threatened famine in some parts of the world.
Battle for Donbas
Putin’s troops are trying to gain full control of the Donbas region of east Ukraine where pro-Moscow separatists seized territory after the Kremlin annexed Crimea to the south in 2014.
Russian forces stepped up their attacks north and northwest of Donetsk city in the Donbas on Sunday, Ukraine’s military said. The Russians attacked Ukrainian positions near the heavily fortified settlements of Piski and Avdiivka, as well as shelling other locations in the Donetsk region, it said.
In addition to tightening its grip over the Donbas, Russia is entrenching its position in southern Ukraine, where it has gathered troops in a bid to prevent a potential counter-offensive near Kherson, Kyiv has said.
As the fighting rages, Russians installed in the wake of Moscow’s invasion have toyed with the idea of joining Ukraine’s occupied territory to Russia. Last month, a senior pro-Russian official said a referendum on such a move was likely “towards next year.”
In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelenskiy said that any “pseudo-referendums” on occupied areas of his country joining Russia would eliminate the possibility of talks between Moscow and its Ukrainian counterparts or their allies.
“They will close for themselves any change of talks with Ukraine and the free world which the Russian side will clearly need at some point,” Zelenskiy said.
The Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Star Helena is seen near the sea port in Odesa after restarting grain export, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Ukraine, on 7th August. PICTURE: Reuters/Igor Tkachenko
Also Sunday, Ukraine’s chief war crimes prosecutor said almost 26,000 suspected war crimes committed since the invasion were being investigated, with 135 people charged, of whom 15 were in custody. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Beyond Ukraine, a proxy battle played out at the International Chess Federation where former Russian deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich won a second term as president, defeating Ukraine’s Andrii Baryshpolets.
And after days of controversy, Amnesty International apologised for “distress and anger” caused by a report accusing Ukraine of endangering civilians. That had infuriated Zelenskiy and prompted the head of the rights group’s Ukraine office to resign.
– With reporting by Reuters bureaux
