- The UN rejects the plan for the safety zone of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
- Ukraine strikes from behind the front lines in Russian-held Melitopol
MARCH 30 (Portal) – Russian forces have had some success in the eastern frontline town of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday night, adding that their fighters are still stuck in a fight that has lasted for several months.
In southern Ukraine, the chief of the United Nations nuclear regulator said he was shelving plans for a security zone around the Russian-held Zaporizhia power plant so that he could propose specific safeguards acceptable to both Moscow and Kyiv.
The mining town of Bakhmut and surrounding towns in the eastern industrial Donetsk region have been the focus of attacks for much of Russia’s 13-month invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Neither side is yet in full control with heavy losses suffered by both.
“Enemy forces had some success in their actions aimed at storming the city of Bakhmut,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its regular nightly report. “Our defenders hold the city and repel numerous enemy attacks.”
The average number of daily Russian attacks on the front line, reported by the Ukrainian General Staff, has declined for four consecutive weeks since early March, from 124 in the week of March 1-7 to 69 in the last seven days. Only 57 attacks were reported on Wednesday.
Portal journalists near the front lines west of Bakhmut and further north also reported a notable drop in the intensity of Russian attacks last week.
Russian officials say their forces are still gaining ground in street fighting in Bakhmut.
RUSHING FROM PLACE TO PLACE
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov, who served in the military, said that while the offensive remained intense, “the conclusion is that Russian troops are beginning to rush from place to place.”
“It now seems that the enemy has shifted their focus to the city itself – that’s where the heaviest fighting is now taking place,” Zhdanov said in a YouTube video. Zhdanov, like the General Staff statement, said that Ukrainian militants are still holding Bakhmut.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense this week described Russian forces’ progress as “marginal,” and on Wednesday US Supreme General Mark Milley told lawmakers Russian troops had made no progress in and around Bakhmut for the past 20 to 21 days.
[1/5] A tank is towed through a street amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, near the bombed-out eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, in eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine March 29, 2023. Portal/Violeta Santos Moura
Portal was unable to verify battlefield reports.
The Zaporizhia power plant was captured by Russian forces a year ago in the first weeks of the war, and attempts to reduce fighting and shelling around it have failed despite fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Russian reporters during a return visit to the plant on Wednesday: “It is evident that military activity is increasing throughout this region. So the power plant cannot be protected.”
A recording of the briefing was made available to Portal.
On Tuesday, Grossi told Portal he was continuing his efforts to find a safety solution for Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
“I’m not giving up in any way. On the contrary, I think we have to multiply our efforts, we have to keep going,” he said.
DAMAGE IN SAPORIZHIA
The plant was a valuable part of Ukraine’s energy grid and accounted for about 20% of the national electricity generation before the invasion. It hasn’t produced any electricity since September, when the last of its six reactors was shut down.
Russian forces shelled cities in the central Zaporizhia region, including the embattled center of Hulyaipole, the Ukrainian General Staff statement said. It was said that the southern city of Kherson, along with other cities on the west bank of the Dnipro River, which bisects the country, came under renewed fire.
The Ukrainian Air Force destroyed a Russian Su-24M bomber, the statement said. Rockets and artillery hit two concentration areas of Russian forces in the past 24 hours, an ammunition depot and two fuel depots, it said.
What Moscow has dubbed a “military special operation” to reduce threats to its own security has killed thousands of soldiers on both sides, displaced tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and displaced millions. The invasion also shook the world economy and disrupted international relations.
The UK, US and Ukraine’s European allies have armed and funded the Kiev government, describing the invasion as an imperial land grab by Russia.
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Olema Harmash, Tom Balmforth, Ron Popeski and David Ljunggren; writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
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