Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine is pushing for a counteroffensive aimed at liberating its southern regions from Russian control as the two countries continue to fight over a nuclear power plant and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed the importance of a total victory for Ukraine.
Moscow has moved troops to southern Ukraine in recent days to bolster its positions and counter an offensive that Ukrainian officials privately say is already underway, with both sides exchanging blows.
Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of Ukraine’s military administration in Nikopol on the Dnipro River south of Zaporizhia, said Russia shelled the town early Tuesday. The strategic city of Mykolaiv continues to bear the brunt of Russian bombing, with its military administration saying on Tuesday that more than 9,000 civilian installations in the region have been destroyed or damaged since the war began.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has struck the key Antonivsky Bridge in the Russian-controlled Kherson region, thwarting Russia’s plans to reopen it after a spate of attacks. Ukraine’s Southern Operations Command reported killing two dozen Russian soldiers and destroying anti-aircraft batteries, tanks and artillery.
Ukraine’s ability to hit strategic targets with precision weapons is becoming an increasingly important element of the war. Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol in southern Ukraine, said this week Ukrainian forces have used US-supplied Himars missile systems to target Russian troops and equipment at industrial sites in the region. On Monday, US Assistant Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl said the US had earlier sent anti-radar missiles to Ukraine. Kyiv recently reported the destruction of Russia’s S-300 and Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile systems in the south, underscoring its continued reliance on Western military aid in its fight against Moscow.
A damaged hotel in Mykolayiv, Ukraine, which continues to bear the brunt of Russian bombing.
Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press
In a Monday evening video, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine must not settle for a partial victory that would leave Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, citing frozen conflicts in Georgia and previously in Donbass in eastern Ukraine.
“Neither a smoldering nor frozen conflict should remain after this Russian war against Ukraine,” said Zelenskyy. “That is an important conclusion. Ukraine must return everything temporarily confiscated by Russia, and the aggressor state must be punished for the crime of aggression.”
Russia, meanwhile, has blocked the flow of crude oil through a pipeline to countries in Central and Eastern Europe, adding to the economic pressures built up by the war. Transneft PJSC, the state-owned oil pipeline operator, said Tuesday it stopped pumping crude oil through Ukrainian territory on August 4. The move halts supplies by the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, which carries oil to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic – all heavily dependent on Russian oil and natural gas before the war and now owned by Moscow as Moscow cuts supplies among the most vulnerable economies.
There are also concerns about the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Ukraine’s nuclear regulator Energoatom on Monday accused Russia of bombing power lines to disconnect the Zaporizhia power plant from Ukraine’s power grid and inciting nearby Ukrainian forces to attack. After an attack that severed a high-voltage power line, damaged three radiation monitors and destroyed 800 square meters of window space, the plant’s workers were forced to shut down one of its six reactors over the weekend.
Ukrainian civilian facilities in Slovansk in the eastern Donetsk region have been destroyed or damaged in Russian missile attacks.
Photo: David Goldman/Associated Press
There was no damage to the reactors and no radiological release, but the two sides exchange allegations about who is responsible, with the Kremlin blaming Ukraine for the shelling of the 5.7-gigawatt plant. Plant employees and Ukrainian officials and diplomats following the case said Russia appears to be trying to disconnect the plant from Ukraine’s national power grid in order to reconnect it to Russia’s.
The Zaporizhia plant has been under Russian control since the early days of the war and is now heavily fortified, but is still run by Ukrainian workers. UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday called for international nuclear inspectors to be allowed access to the site to assess its safety.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian law enforcement announced it had foiled a Russian plan to assassinate Ukraine’s defense minister and military intelligence chief, and arrested two men in western Ukraine who were allegedly promised $100,000 and more by Russian henchmen for each operation.
Russia on Tuesday launched a surveillance satellite it had produced for Iran, weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei agreed to form a united front against the West.
Some Western officials have expressed concern that the satellite could be used by the Kremlin to improve its surveillance of Ukraine, but the Iranian government denied this via state news agency IRNA.
A still image of a rocket carrying the Khayyam satellite released Tuesday by the Russian Space Agency.
Photo: Yuri Kadobnov/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The Khayyám satellite was successfully launched into orbit by a Soyuz rocket launched from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to the Russian Space Agency.
The satellite, named after Omar Khayyám, an 11th-century Persian astronomer and polymath, has already begun sending data to the Iranian Space Agency, according to IRNA.
Tehran said the new satellite will be used for scientific purposes, but Western officials fear it could be used to spy on targets in Israel and the Middle East.
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