Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for strikes near a reactor at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Friday (5 August), Europe’s largest, on the day that three new shipments of grain, crucial to world food security, fell left ports.
Strikes near the Zaporizhia power plant
Kyiv and Moscow blame each other for “three strikes” near one of the reactors of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. “Despite the provocations of the Russians, the plant continues to operate and supplies the energy system of Ukraine with electricity via operational lines,” said the Ukrainian state-owned company Energoatom. “It was decided to unload and shut down one of the reactors.” However, “there are risks of hydrogen leakage and spraying of radioactive substances. The risk of fire is high.”
For its part, the Russian army spoke of “artillery fire” by “Ukrainian armed formations” both “on the territory of the Zaporizhia power plant and on the city of Energodar” and denounced “acts of nuclear terrorism”. As the International Atomic Energy Agency announced on Tuesday, the situation at the Zaporizhia power plant is becoming “more dangerous by the day”. When the plant was taken over, the Russian military opened fire on buildings on the site.
A grain convoy in the Black Sea
Five days after the departure of a first freighter carrying Ukrainian grain from Odessa, three more shipments, also corn, left Ukraine in a convoy, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said. A series of regular rotations should follow to supply the agricultural markets.
The three ships will serve Ireland, England and Turkey, the Turkish ministry said. At the same time, a building is on its way, also to load grain, towards the port of Chernomorsk (southern Ukraine), which it has to reach on Saturday, said Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov.
Russia and Ukraine have signed two separate deals, validated by Turkey and the United Nations, allowing the export of Ukrainian grain immobilized by the conflict and Russian agricultural products despite Western sanctions. They are expected to help ease the global food crisis, which has caused prices to soar in some of the poorest countries due to the lockdown of Ukrainian ports.
Amnesty accepts its conclusions
Amnesty International has accused Ukraine’s military of setting up bases in schools and hospitals and launching attacks from populated areas. And this, the NGO stated, violates “international humanitarian law”. This document provoked outrage in Kiev, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in turn accused it of “trying to grant amnesty to the Russian terror state” and “shifting responsibility from the aggressor to the victim”.
>> What’s in Amnesty International’s investigation accusing Kyiv of endangering civilians
This Friday, Amnesty International fully endorsed its “findings, based on evidence obtained during wide-ranging investigations that are subject to the same rigorous standards and review process” as all of its usual work. The NGO, however, insisted in its report that the Ukrainian tactics “in no way justify the indiscriminate Russian attacks” that have hit the population.
The head of Amnesty International in Ukraine, Oksana Pokalchuk, has announced her resignation. “The Ukrainian office has repeatedly emphasized that the investigation should at least include both parties,” she explains on Facebook, “and take into account the position of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.” The latter had been contacted, but without having had the time to reply. She adds that without intending to, the NGO “created material resembling support for Russian narratives”.
New Russian attack on Mykolaiv
The Russian army again bombed Mykolayiv, a town not far from the southern front. Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said 22 people were injured, including a 13-year-old boy, and the strike damaged many homes. A curfew was imposed in this city until Monday morning in order to neutralize the Russian “collaborators”, said the governor of the region Vitaly Kim. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are conducting a counteroffensive in the south, where they claim to have recaptured more than 50 villages that fell victim to Russian soldiers.