UKRAINE UPDATES | UN chief demands international access to Ukraine nuclear plant after new attack

August 08 2022 — 13:14

Ukraine calls for demilitarised zone around nuclear plant hit by shelling

International alarm over weekend artillery attacks on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex grew on Monday with Kyiv warning of the risk of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe and appealing for the area to be made a demilitarised zone.

The United Nations chief called for access to the plant as Kyiv and Moscow traded blame for the shelling in a southern region captured by Russian invaders in March and now targeted by Kyiv for a counteroffensive.

“Any attack (on) a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told a news conference on Monday in Japan, where he attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing.

Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine's state nuclear power company Energoatom, called for a team of peacekeepers to be deployed at the Zaporizhzhia site, which is still run by Ukrainian technicians.

“The decision that we demand from the world community and all our partners ... is to withdraw the invaders from the territory of the station and create a demilitarised zone on the territory of the station,” Kotin said on television.

“The presence of peacekeepers in this zone and the transfer of control of it to them, and then also control of the station to the Ukrainian side would resolve this problem.

“Russia's defence ministry said on Monday that Ukrainian shelling had damaged high-voltage power lines servicing the Soviet-era plant and forced it to reduce output by two of its six reactors to “prevent disruption”.

A Russian-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region said earlier that the facility was operating normally.

Ukraine blamed Russia for renewed shelling in the area of the plant that it said damaged three radiation sensors, with two workers hospitalised for shrapnel injuries.

The Zaporizhzhia region's Russian-installed authority said Ukrainian forces hit the site with a multiple rocket launcher, damaging administrative buildings and a storage area.

Reuters could not verify either side's version of what happened.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the shelling was “extremely dangerous” and added: “We expect the countries that have absolute influence on the Ukrainian leadership to use this influence to rule out the continuation of such shelling.

“Ukraine's Kotin flagged the danger of shells hitting spent containers of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel as especially dire. If two or more containers were broken, “it is impossible to assess the scale of this catastrophe”.

The world's worst civil nuclear disaster occurred in 1986 when a reactor at the Chernobyl complex in northwest Ukraine exploded. The plant was occupied by Russian forces soon after the February 24 invasion before they withdrew in late March.

Guterres said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needed access to the Zaporizhzhia plant.

“We fully support the IAEA in all their efforts in relation to create(ing) the conditions for stabilisation of the plant,” he said.

Ukraine has said it is planning to conduct a major counteroffensive in the Russian-occupied south, apparently focused on the city of Kherson, west of Zaporizhzhia, and that it has already retaken dozens of villages.

Reuters 

August 08 2022 — 10:30

Zaporizhzhia nuclear station operating normally — Interfax quotes Russia-installed official

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, hit by shelling over the weekend, is operating “in normal mode,” the Interfax news agency quoted the Russian-installed head of the local administration as saying on Monday.

“We have information from the military and representatives of Russia's Rosatom, who are here, just watching the situation. We have information from them that everything is operating in normal mode,” said Yevgeniy Balitsky, head of the Russian-installed administration of the Zaporizhzhia region.

Balitsky said the facility, Europe's largest nuclear power station, was under the control of Russian authorities.Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for shelling the station over the weekend. 

Reuters 

August 08 2022 — 10:15

Ukraine says it hit Russian troop bases, key bridges in overnight strikes

Ukraine conducted long-range strikes on Russian troop bases and two key bridges across the Dnipro river overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The strikes hit the only two crossings Russia has to the pocket of southern Ukrainian territory it has occupied on the western bank of the vast Dnipro river, said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine's southern military command.

“The results (of the strikes) are rather respectable, hits on the Antonivskyi and Kakhovskyi bridges,” she said on television.

Ukrainian HIMARS strikes also hit multiple military bases in Ukraine's Russian-occupied southern city of Melitopol in the early hours, killing troops and destroying hardware, the exiled mayor said.

“According to preliminary estimates, a significant amount of military equipment was destroyed,” Mayor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.

Reuters could not immediately verify the officials' battlefield accounts.

Ukraine's defence minister said two weeks ago that 50 Russian ammunition depots had been destroyed by US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, which Ukraine started using in June.

Russia says it is waging a “special military operation” in Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and the West describe Russia's actions as unprovoked aggression

Reuters 

August 08 2022 — 09:26

Ukraine faces key test on debt freeze plan in bid to avoid messy default

Ukraine's creditors vote this week on a government proposal to defer payments on the war-torn country's international bonds for 24 months as Kyiv hopes to swerve a $20 billion messy default.

Bondholders have until 5pm. New York time (2100 GMT) on Tuesday to decide whether to back or vote down the proposal by Ukraine's government, which faces a $5 billion monthly financing gap and liquidity pressures following Russia's invasion on February 24. Time is precious: the country has a $1 billion bond maturing on September 1.

August 08 2022 — 08:20

Fresh shelling delays reopening of Kherson bridge -Interfax

Ukrainian forces again shelled the Antonivskyi bridge in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, damaging construction equipment and delaying its reopening, Interfax news agency quoted a local Russian-appointed official as saying on Monday.

The bridge is one of only two crossing points for Russian forces to territory they have occupied on the western bank of the Dnipro river in southern Ukraine in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” in the country.

It has been a key target for Ukrainian forces in recent weeks, with Kyiv using high-precision US-supplied rockets to try to destroy it in possible preparation for a counteroffensive to retake Russian-controlled areas of the south.

Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed deputy head of Kherson's city administration, told Interfax there had been no “critical damage” from the latest shelling. He did not say how long this would delay its planned reopening. 

Reuters 

August 08 2022 — 07:40

Russia highly likely deploying anti-personnel mines in Donbas — UK

Russia is highly likely to be deploying anti-personnel mines along its defensive lines in the Donbas region of Ukraine, Britain said on Monday, without citing evidence.

In Donetsk and Kramatorsk, Russia has highly likely attempted the employment of PFM-1 and PFM-1S scatterable anti-personnel mines, commonly called the 'butterfly mine', Britain's defence ministry said on Twitter.

These are “deeply controversial, indiscriminate weapons,” the ministry said in the regular bulletin.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. 

Reuters

August 08 2022 — 07:20

Two more grain ships sail from Ukraine, Turkey says

Two more grain-carrying ships have sailed from Ukraine's Black Sea ports on Monday, Turkey's defence ministry said, as part of a deal to unblock Ukrainian sea exports.

The Sacura, which departed from Yuzni, is carrying 11,000 tonnes of soybeans to Italy, it said, while the Arizona, which left Chernomorsk, is carrying 48,458 tonnes of corn to Iskenderun in southern Turkey. 

Reuters

August 08 2022 — 06:52

UN chief Guterres: Risk of nuclear confrontation is back after decades

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that the risk of nuclear confrontation had returned after decades, calling on nuclear states to commit to no first use of the weapons.

Any attack on a nuclear plant is a “suicidal thing”, Guterres said, responding to reports of renewed Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia facility in Ukraine, Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

Guterres spoke at a news conference in Tokyo after attending the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing.

He also called on Japan to halt public and private financing of coal projects as part of the country's commitments in curbing fossil fuel emissions. 

Reuters

August 08 2022 — 06:26

China's exports to Russia grow for the first time in five months in July

Chinese exports to Russia snapped four months of declines and grew robustly in July, while Russian shipments to China also held up well, official customs data showed.

Shipments to sanctions-hit Russia rose 22.2% in July from a year earlier in dollar terms, shaking off the decline of 17% in June and marking the first growth since March, according to Reuters calculations based on customs data released on Sunday.

Imports growth from Russia sustained an elevated pace at 49.3% in July, though slower than a 56% gain in June and a 79.6% rise in May.

Russia is a major source of oil, gas, coal and agricultural commodities for China.

Amid the ongoing Ukraine war, Russia was China's biggest oil supplier in May and June as Chinese buyers cashed in on lower-priced supplies.

However, oil supplies loaded from the Russian ports to the China dropped to 21.3 million barrels in July, the lowest since February.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, an intervention Moscow describes as a “special military operation”.

China has refused to condemn Russia's actions and has criticised the sweeping Western sanctions on Moscow. Beijing also says that it has not provided military assistance to Russia or Ukraine, but that it would take “necessary measures” to protect the rights of its companies. 

Reuters

August 08 2022 — 06:00

UN chief demands international access to Ukraine nuclear plant after new attack

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe's largest atomic plant at the weekend.

“Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing,” Guterres told a news conference in Japan, where he attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing.

Ukraine said renewed Russian shelling on Saturday had damaged three radiation sensors and hurt a worker at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, the second hit in consecutive days on the site.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of waging “nuclear terror” that warranted more international sanctions, this time on Moscow's nuclear sector.

“There is no such nation in the world that could feel safe when a terrorist state fires at a nuclear plant,” Zelensky said in a televised address on Sunday.

Russian forces captured the plant in southeastern Ukraine in early March but it is still run by Ukrainian technicians.

The Russian-installed authority of the area said Ukrainian forces hit the site with a multiple rocket launcher, damaging administrative buildings and an area near a storage facility. The Russian embassy in Washington also released a statement itemising the damage.

“Ukrainian nationalists launched an artillery strike on the territory of the specified object on August 5. Two high-voltage power lines and a water pipeline were damaged as a result of the shelling.

Only thanks to the effective and timely actions of the Russian military in covering the nuclear power facility, its critical infrastructure was not affected,” the embassy said.

Reuters could not verify either side's version.

Events at the Zaporizhzhia site — where Kyiv alleged that Russia hit a power line on Friday — have alarmed the world.

Guterres said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needed access to the plant.

“We fully support the IAEA in all their efforts in relation to create the conditions of stabilisation of the plant,” Guterres said.

IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi warned on Saturday that the latest attack “underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster”.

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 Feb. 24 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 Feb. 24 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.

Reuters