- Zelenskyy denounces “radiation blackmail”.
- Ukraine closes frontline city of Avdiivka to civilians
- Zelenskyy visits the south-eastern Zaporizhia region
- Minsk defends decision to deploy Russian nuclear weapons
KIEV, March 28 (Portal) – Ukraine’s president said Russian troops were holding the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant “hostage” and its safety could not be guaranteed until they exit, while his forces cordoned off the frontline town of Avdiivka as they prepared their next step planned .
Russian troops have occupied the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, since the first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine and have shown no inclination to relinquish control.
“Holding a nuclear power plant hostage for more than a year is certainly the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of European or world nuclear power,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
He described the Russian presence as “radiation blackmail”.
His comments followed a meeting with Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station – northeast of the Zaporizhia power plant.
Initiatives to restore security are “doomed to fail” without a withdrawal of Russian troops from the plant, Zelenskyy said in comments on the president’s website.
Russia and Ukraine regularly accuse each other of shelling the Zaporizhia plant. The struggle to do so, and concerns about water shortages and that cooling systems could be underperforming, have fueled fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
A team of IAEA experts has been stationed at the facility since September, which Kiev accuses Moscow of using as a shield for troops and military hardware.
Grossi has repeatedly called for a safety zone around him and will visit again this week. He has tried to negotiate with both sides but said in January it was becoming more difficult to broker a deal.
Zaporizhia is one of four regions Russia allegedly annexed in September after referendums were criticized around the world as bogus. Russia regards the facility as its territory, which Ukraine denies.
Zelenskyy visited the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, the latest leg of a tour of the frontline regions since a senior general said Ukraine’s counterattack could be coming soon.
TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, now entering its 14th month, has stalled for months amid fierce fighting along the Eastern Front, where Zelenskyy’s forces are trying to wear down the invaders before launching their own offensive.
In warnings to the West to continue to arm Ukraine, Putin and other Russian officials have increasingly exaggerated the risks of using nuclear weapons in the war. On Saturday, Putin said he had reached an agreement to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, an ally of Moscow.
Belarus’ foreign ministry said Tuesday it had agreed to deploy the nuclear weapons to protect itself after years of “unprecedented pressure” from the West. The step does not violate international non-proliferation agreements.
Ukraine and its western allies have denounced the plan.
Putin’s war has devastated Ukrainian cities and towns, causing the deaths of thousands and forcing millions more to flee their homes, while sharply skyrocketing global food and energy prices and escalating tensions around the world.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday its navy fired supersonic anti-ship missiles at a decoy target during an exercise in the Sea of Japan, prompting Tokyo – a key Western ally – to warn of increased Russian military activity in the Far East region.
Germany said on Monday that 18 Leopard 2 tanks, the military’s workhorses across Europe, had reached Ukraine.
“I am sure that they can make a decisive contribution at the front,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Twitter.
Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Zhurginov said Tuesday Ukrainian drone strikes posed a serious threat to Russia’s key energy infrastructure. Moscow said it had foiled a number of attempted drone strikes by Ukraine in recent months.
Meanwhile, Ukraine, which has not publicly admitted attacks on targets inside Russia, said its air defenses shot down 12 drones near Kiev on Monday and falling debris set fire to a non-residential compound. No casualties were reported.
‘TERROR’
Russia fired a total of 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s military said early Tuesday, adding its forces had destroyed 14 of them.
“The logic of Russian actions is terror against civilian infrastructure,” Ukrainian Presidential Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak told Telegram about the drone strikes.
“It won’t work, just like geopolitical blackmail.”
On the battlefield, Russian forces appear to be concentrating on Avdiivka, 90 km (55 miles) south of the ruined mining town of Bakhmut. Ukraine closed Avdiivka to civilians on Monday, with one official describing it as a “post-apocalyptic” wasteland.
Ukraine’s military has warned that Avdiivka could become a “second Bakhmut” reduced to rubble in months of fighting dubbed a “meat grinder” by both sides. Russian forces say they are still fighting street by street in Bakhmut.
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who said this month a counterattack was not “distant”, visited front-line troops in the east and said his forces were still repelling attacks on Bakhmut.
Ukrainian forces reported repelling 62 Russian attacks along the Eastern Front in the past 24 hours.
Portal could not verify battlefield reports.
Reporting by Portal Bureaus Ron Popeski and Elaine Monaghan; writing by Himani Sarkar and Gareth Jones; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Robert Birsel, Peter Graff
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