The news came as a team from the United Nations nuclear watchdog headed to Ukraine to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – seized by Russian forces in March but still run by Ukrainian personnel – which has become a hotspot in the war. “Today we launched offensive actions in various directions, including the Kherson region,” Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported, citing Southern Command spokeswoman Natalya Khumenyuk. Russia quickly seized areas of southern Ukraine near the Black Sea coast, including Kherson, in the early phase of the war. It was in stark contrast to her failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv. Ukraine is using sophisticated weapons supplied by the West to hit Russian munitions dumps and wreak havoc on supply lines. Khomenyuk said at a briefing on Monday that Ukraine had hit more than 10 such munitions dumps in the past week, adding that they “undoubtedly weakened the enemy”. Municipal service workers on Monday stand next to a crater near the damaged headquarters of the Kharkiv administration building after an overnight rocket attack. (Sergei Bobok/AFP/Getty Images) He declined to elaborate on the counteroffensive, saying Russian forces in southern Ukraine remain “quite strong.” The governor of Ukraine’s Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, Sergei Aksionov, dismissed the announcement of a counterattack on Telegram as “another hoax of Ukrainian propaganda.” Crimea is located next to the Kherson region. A team of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors is due to arrive in Kyiv on Monday and will reach the plant on the Dnipro River “in the next few days,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook. The day has come, the pic.twitter.com/tyVY7l4SrM —@rafaelmgrossi Earlier, the IAEA chief said he would lead the team to the Zaporizhia plant, without specifying the expected day of their arrival. “We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear facility,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the IAEA, said on Twitter. The IAEA said separately on Twitter that the mission would assess physical damage, assess the conditions under which personnel work at the plant and “determine the functionality of safety and security systems.” It would also “perform urgent safeguards activities,” a reference to monitoring nuclear material. A top Russian diplomat said Moscow welcomed the IAEA mission, and an official stationed by Moscow in Russian-held Ukraine said authorities would ensure the safety of UN nuclear inspectors, Russian news agencies reported.
Ukraine warns Russia against using factory as military base
Ukraine’s nuclear power agency, Energoatom, warned on Monday of Russia’s efforts to cover up the plant’s military use. “The occupiers, in preparation for the arrival of the IAEA mission, increased pressure on staff … to prevent them from revealing evidence of the occupiers’ crimes at the plant and its use as a military base,” Energoatom said, adding that four factory workers injured by Russian shelling of the town where they live. Ukraine has blamed Russia for new missile and artillery attacks on or near the plant, heightening fears that the fighting could trigger a massive radioactive leak. So far, radiation levels at the facility, which has six reactors, have been reported to be normal. Ukraine has claimed that Russia is effectively holding the plant hostage, storing weapons there and launching attacks from around it, while Moscow accuses Ukraine of firing recklessly into the facility. World leaders called on the Russians to demilitarize the plant. Satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies on Monday showed armored personnel carriers on a road near the reactors, damage to the roof of a building also near the reactors and fires burning nearby. This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows armored personnel carriers near reactors at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Monday. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via Associated Press)
The G7 welcomes the watchdog’s visit
The United Nations and Ukraine have called for the withdrawal of military equipment and personnel from the nuclear complex, Europe’s largest, to ensure it is not a target. The two sides have been exchanging accusations for days that they are flirting with disaster with their attacks. Two of the plant’s reactors were cut off last week by shelling. People hold a 430-meter-long Ukrainian flag on Sunday in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The action was meant to symbolize Ukraine’s unity amid its war with Russia. (Alexey Furman/Getty Images) With fears of a nuclear accident in a country still haunted by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, authorities in Zaporizhia are handing out iodine tablets and teaching residents how to use them in the event of a radioactive leak. The Group of Seven major industrialized nations welcomed the mission of IAEA inspectors and reiterated concerns about the safety of the Russian-controlled plant. “We confirm that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the electricity it generates rightfully belong to Ukraine,” the G7 group of non-proliferation leaders said in a statement. Liliia Vaulina, 22, among a growing number of refugees from Enerhodar arriving in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 50 kilometers above the plant, said she hoped the IAEA mission would lead to demilitarization of her region. “I think they will stop the bombing,” he told Reuters.
Counterclaims
A senior adviser to the president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said counterattacking Ukrainian troops had broken through Russian defenses in several front-line sectors near the city of Kherson. In a YouTube video interview, Oleksiy Arestovych also said Ukrainian forces were bombing ferries used by Moscow to supply a pocket of Russian-held territory on the west bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region. Russian-installed officials, citing Ukrainian rocket fire, announced the evacuation of residents of Nova Kakhovka, east of Kherson, from their workplaces to bomb shelters on Monday. In another town in Kherson region, Berislav, Russian news agencies reported that Ukrainian shelling had destroyed a church, a school and other buildings. But in a war filled with claims and counterclaims that are difficult to independently verify, Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed regional leader of Crimea, dismissed as false the Ukrainian claim of an attack in the Kherson region. He said Ukrainian forces have suffered heavy casualties in the region. Zelensky responded to speculation about whether his forces had launched a major counteroffensive in southern Ukraine by asking in his late-night video address on Monday: “Does anyone want to know what our plans are? You won’t hear details from anyone really in charge. Because this is war.”
Attacks continue in Donetsk
Russian shelling killed two people and wounded 11 in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Monday, the city’s mayor said. Strikes “hit residences and educational institutions,” Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram, adding that rescue workers were working on the scenes of the strikes. Russia denies targeting civilians. WATCH l ‘We have no choice’ — Ukrainians pick up the pieces:
Ukrainian communities begin to rebuild as war rages
Even with the threat of war still looming over them, some Ukrainian communities have begun the difficult task of putting the pieces back together. Many are still burying the dead as they try to rebuild their homes and lives. In eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russian forces shelled military and civilian infrastructure near Bakhmut, Sumy, Yakovlivka, Zaitsevo and Kontema, the Ukrainian military said early Monday.
