Bombing continued overnight on the front line in Ukraine from Wednesday to Thursday, including near the Zaporijia nuclear power plant, which will be on the agenda of a UN Security Council meeting later that day.
• Also read: Ukraine has obtained a two-year debt moratorium
In Nikopol (southeast), about 100 km from the Zaporizhia power plant, which is across the Dnieper, Governor Valentyn Reznichenko reported on his Telegram account three dead and nine wounded in nights of Russian bombing with Grad multiple rocket launchers.
In Donbass (east), the head of the military administration of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, announced by telegram on Thursday morning that eleven civilians had been killed in the last 24 hours: six in Bakhmout, three in Soledar, one in Krasnogorivka and one in Avdiivka .
Russian forces, constantly shelling the town of Soledar, are trying to drive the Ukrainian army out of it to advance toward the nearby, larger town of Bachmout.
The real Russian advance was very slow and the war turned into an artillery duel between two entrenched armies around some places.
In Latvia, parliament on Wednesday passed a statement labeling Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” and “Russian violence against Ukrainian civilians” as “targeted genocide.”
“Nuclear Safety”
The meeting, convened on Thursday afternoon at the United Nations’ request by Russia, will examine the security situation at the Zaporijjia nuclear site, the largest in Europe, which worries the international community.
Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of bombing them last week, claims that have not been independently verified.
Deadly bomb attacks took place near the power plant in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian authorities, who lamented the deaths of 13 in the Dniepropetrovsk region and one more in the Zaporijia region.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement that its director-general, Rafael Grossi, would brief the UN Security Council “of the nuclear safety situation” at the facility, as well as its “efforts to reach an agreement on an IAEA expert mission to do so.” on site as soon as possible”.
The IAEA said its report would detail how last week’s bombing of the site “violated virtually all of the seven vital pillars of nuclear safety and security” that Mr Grossi described at the start of the conflict.
On Wednesday, the Group of the Seven Most Industrialized Countries (G7) demanded that “Russia immediately return full control of the plant to its legitimate sovereign owner, Ukraine.” “It is Russia’s continued control of the facility that is endangering the region,” he said.
On Tuesday evening, Ukrainian operator Energoatom said Russian forces are preparing to connect the power plant to Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine annexed by Moscow in 2014 and at the forefront of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, which began on September 2014 February 24 was triggered and intentionally damaged by this reorientation of power generation.
Target Crimea
Crimea remains in the sights of Ukrainian women: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared on Tuesday evening that she was “Ukrainian” and that Kyiv “will never let her down”.
Powerful blasts devastated an ammunition depot at a Russian military airfield in Crimea on Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring several others and sparking panic among thousands of Russian tourists vacationing in the peninsula. The Russian army claimed that no gunfire or bombing was the cause of these explosions.
For its part, Kyiv has not officially acknowledged its responsibility for the incident, but an adviser to the presidency, Mikhaïlo Podoliak, had assured on Twitter on Tuesday that “this is just the beginning” because, in his opinion, “Crimea’s future will be a pearl.” of the Black Sea (…), no military base for terrorists”.
Financially, Ukraine has obtained from its international creditors a two-year moratorium on its external debt, valued at $20 billion, Prime Minister Denys Chmygal announced.
“This allows Ukraine to maintain macro-financial stability and strengthen economic viability,” he said on Twitter on Wednesday evening.
Ukraine’s economy has collapsed since the start of the war with Russia that began on February 24 and could see a 45% drop in GDP this year, according to the latest World Bank estimates.