So far, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have not had the necessary safety guarantees for a trip to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Now a team from the IAEA is said to be on its way to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The head of the authority, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said on Twitter. “The day has come, the IAEA Assistance and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhia is now on its way to Zaporizhia,” he wrote. “We must protect the safety of the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine and Europe.” Grossi is proud to lead this mission. In the course of the week she will arrive in Zaporizhia.
As a further step in the escalation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the Russian occupation administration reported an alleged Ukrainian attack with a drone. The aircraft was shot down and fell on the containment shell over a reactor. The explosive charge detonated without causing any damage. This information has not been independently verified. It was assumed that the drone was intended to hit a spent fuel storage facility.
The night shelling of the city of Enerhodar injured nine people, two of them seriously, said Vladimir Rogov, a member of the occupation administration, on Monday night. The information could not be independently verified.
The escaped Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlow, spoke of a provocation: Russian troops had fired. He accused Moscow of “nuclear blackmail” because Russian troops entrenched themselves in the nuclear power plant. The international community fears a possible nuclear accident caused by the fighting at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Two reactors went into emergency shutdown last week because the power supply was intermittent.
No attack on Ukrainian cities will remain unanswered, said President Zelenskyj after the consultation with the military: “Zaporizhia, Orikhiv, Kharkiv, Donbass – you will get an answer for everyone.” According to the Presidential Office, the meeting was about the situation the front, the needs of the army and coordination with international partners.
According to the authorities, the Rivne region in northern Ukraine was attacked with Russian rockets on Sunday evening. Activists from neighboring Belarus linked the attack to several Russian warplanes taking off from airfields in Belarus. Two rockets also hit the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Sunday evening, as Mayor Ihor Terekhov announced. An administration building was destroyed.
Dozens of places along the more than 2,000-kilometer-long front line have been shelled by Russian tanks, tube and rocket artillery, the Ukrainian General Staff said. Russian assaults were repelled in several places in the Donbass.
Russia continues to move towards annexation of the occupied territories in Ukraine through referendums. High-ranking Kremlin official Sergey Kiriyenko put out a number that said that in the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, 91 to 92 percent of the population were in favor of joining Russia. In the Cherson and Zaporizhia areas, which have been conquered since February, it is 75 to 77 percent. Kiriyenko was referring to polls in the region that allegedly showed these results.
“The decision is pending,” said the deputy head of the Presidential Office. President Vladimir Putin has always said that the decision lies with the people of the region and that Russia will respect their choice. The Russian and Ukrainian media have repeatedly speculated about referendums in the occupied territories in September. Russian online portal Medusa, which operates out of Latvia, reported, citing sources in the Kremlin, that support for joining was much lower.
According to the Ukrainian army, it has fended off Russian assaults in several places in the east of the country. This included the village of Wessela Dolyna near the town of Bakhmut in the Donbass, as the Ukrainian General Staff announced in its evening report on Sunday. The Russian attack has been stuck off Bakhmut for weeks with little progress. The information provided by the two warring parties can initially hardly be checked independently.
Northwest of the city of Donetsk, pro-Russian separatists and Russian troops tried to attack the village of Pervomaiske. According to the General Staff, this attack was also repelled. In that region, Ukraine recently lost control of the Donetsk suburb of Pisky.
That will be important on Monday
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) visits the Czech Republic and gives a keynote address on European policy at Charles University in Prague. Scholz had announced a turning point because of the Russian war of aggression. However, Germany has been criticized for sticking too closely to Russia in the past and now helping Ukraine too little. Scholz’s topics include energy policy, possible entry bans for Russian tourists and arms deliveries to Ukraine.
