Heavy fighting reported in Ukraine as last nuclear reactor shut.webp

Heavy fighting reported in Ukraine as last nuclear reactor shut down due to flooding – The Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s military on Saturday reported fierce fighting with Russian forces, while the country’s atomic energy agency said it “cold shut down” the last operational reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant for safety reasons as Russia waged war on the Ukraine leads drags on for the 16th month.

After Russian forces fired rockets and drones at Ukraine overnight, killing and damaging a military airfield, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Kiev on Saturday for a previously unannounced visit, his second trip to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last February year. He was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday that “heavy fighting” was ongoing, with 34 clashes compared to the previous day in the country’s industrial east. No details were given, but it was said that Russian forces “defended themselves” and launched air and artillery strikes in Ukraine’s southern Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.

A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his view that Ukrainian troops had launched a long-awaited counter-offensive and suffered “significant” casualties.

At the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe occupied by Russian forces, five out of six reactors were already in cold shutdown mode. This is a process where all the control rods are inserted into the reactor core to stop the fission reaction and generate heat and pressure.

Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear agency, said in a statement late Friday that there was “no direct threat” to the Zaporizhia power plant due to the rupture of the Kakhovka dam further down the Dnieper River, which has forced thousands to flee floods a reservoir, which was used to cool the plant, has fallen sharply.

Energoatom said it shut down the last reactor for this reason, and also because of the shelling near the site that damaged overhead wires connecting the power plant to Ukraine’s energy system.

When all nuclear reactions are stopped, the temperatures and pressure in the reactors gradually decrease, reducing the required intensity of water cooling of the radioactive fuel. This is the safest way of operating a nuclear power plant. Energoatom employees still work at the power plant, although it remains under Russian control.

The site’s power plants have not been operational since September last year. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency will visit Ukraine in the coming days.

Also on Saturday morning, Ukrainian authorities reported that at least four civilians had died across the country as Russian forces launched Iranian-made Shahed drones and missiles, as well as artillery and mortar attacks.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that an overnight attack on the Black Sea port of Odessa killed three and wounded more than two dozen. A spokeswoman for the South Ukraine Task Force, Natalia Humeniuk, said two children and a pregnant woman were among the injured.

In northeastern Ukraine, a 29-year-old man was killed when more than 10 drones targeted the Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported on Saturday. He added that at least three other civilians were injured.

In the more western Poltava region, there was damage to a military airfield damaged overnight in a Russian drone and missile attack, local governor Dmytro Lunin reported. Lunin said no one was hurt. As of Saturday morning, there was no further comment from the Ukrainian army or officials on the extent of the damage.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 20 of 35 Shahed drones and two of eight missiles “of different types” launched by Russian forces during the night.

The fighting and civilian casualties drew renewed attention as authorities in southern Ukraine said water levels had dropped in a vast area below the ruptured dam.

Almost a third of the natural reserves in the Kherson region could be destroyed by floods after the Kakhovka dam collapsed, Ukraine’s environment minister warned on Saturday.

In a Facebook post, Ruslan Strilets said the dam collapse had completely inundated a national park, drained rivers and lakes in other protected areas and could cause groundwater to rise in parts of the Moscow-held Dnieper Delta, threatening the danger bring further flooding with it .

In the city of Kherson, whose outskirts were among the flood-hit areas, the average overnight water level fell 31 centimeters (12 inches) but remained over 4.5 meters (15 feet) higher than usual, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Saturday.

Prokudin warned that meteorologists were predicting heavy rains in the area over the weekend, which would complicate rescue efforts.

The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said in an interview with the Associated Press on Friday that an “extraordinary” 700,000 people needed drinking water.

In other developments:

On Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he wanted to continue speaking to Putin – whose order for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been criticized by many Western leaders – and plan to do so again “soon”. Scholz has spoken to Putin on the phone several times since the invasion.

The Chancellor said the basis for a “just peace” between Russia and Ukraine is the withdrawal of Russian troops. “It has to be understood,” he said.

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Jon Gambrell in Kiev, Joanna Kozlowska in London and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this story.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine