(AFP) – Russia is using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant as a storage base for weapons, including “missile systems” and firing on areas surrounding Ukraine, a spokesperson for the Kyiv Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday. . country was exposed. in air strikes. anxiety.
Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom said the situation at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant was “extremely tense”, with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the plant.
“The attackers are taking their equipment there, including missile systems, they are already capturing the other bank of the Dnieper and the Nikopol area,” Petr Kotin said in a television interview, referring to the city across the water.
Although the factory in southwestern Ukraine has been under Russian control since the first weeks of the Moscow occupation, it still employs Ukrainian workers.
“Three people were killed and 15 injured in the latest terrorist attack in the Dnipro region, after Russian missiles hit a nearby industrial plant and a busy street,” regional governor Valentin Reznichenko told Telegram.
The threat of air strikes has also increased in almost all of Ukraine, following reports of attacks on areas far from the frontline, in which Russian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia’s aim was to “inflict the greatest damage on Ukrainian cities”.
“I warn you again: please ignore the air raid warnings today,” the daily television statement said.
Zelenskiy came after devastating Russian attacks in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa that killed nearly two dozen people, including three children, and rescuers cleared the rubble all day to find survivors.
Zelenskiy said four people are still missing and more than 200 are injured.
“We will do everything we can to hold all Russian killers accountable for their actions, both nationally and internationally,” he said.
Germany’s chancellor, climate alert, says return to coal plant ‘temporary’ amid sanctions war against Russia https://t.co/Qg1SM7f7FL
– Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) 16 July 2022
Russia said the attacks in Vinnitsa, hundreds of kilometers from the front line, killed Ukrainian soldiers and foreign arms suppliers.
But among those killed was four-year-old Liza Dmitrieva, who has Down syndrome and whose death caused a stir after footage of her last moments went viral on social media.
Authorities initially believed that Lisa’s mother was also killed, but announced on Friday that she was alive and in “critical” condition after the operation.
Earlier Friday, First Lady Elena Zelenskaya said she was “scared” by photos of Lisa’s death and her upside-down stroller released by local authorities.
The rocket attacks at Vinnytsia were the latest to cause heavy civilian casualties and came less than a week after the attacks on Chasovy Yar in the Donetsk region, which killed around 50 people.
Friday’s strike fell on the central square of Kramatorsk, a major city and administrative center of Donbass. Authorities said no one was injured in the incident that occurred during the curfew.
“I have no words to describe the horror I experienced today,” said Anastasia after rockets fell next to her apartment.
“Good thing it fell out and didn’t fly home. That’s lucky.”
Moscow launched its offensive on February 24, and the fighting has claimed thousands of lives, razed cities and forced millions of people to flee their homes.
The final battle in Ukraine is centered in the eastern industrial Donbass, where boring trench warfare and artillery duels have turned into wars of attrition.
3⃣5.3⃣ child died, 6⃣6⃣2⃣ injured #Russian Armed forces.
hundreds of thousands #Ukraine children were exiled #Russia.
Russian soldier = war criminal. pic.twitter.com/sARhbIY3Vr
– Ukraine MFA (@MFA_Ukraine) 16 July 2022
On Friday, the United Kingdom said the Kremlin “must take full responsibility” for the death of a British prisoner in eastern Ukraine.
“I was shocked when I heard the news that British aid worker Paul Urey was killed while being detained in Ukraine by a Russian agent,” Foreign Minister Liz Truss said.
Moscow-backed separatists said they were close to their next target, Seversk, on Friday, after taking control of the twin cities of Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, about 30 kilometers east, two weeks ago.
Daniil Versonov, the official representative of the Donetsk separatists, said that militants “cleared” the eastern areas of Seversk in small groups.
Ukraine has repeatedly urged its allies to provide advanced, long-range precision artillery systems that will enable Russian forces to strike deeper into Ukrainian-held territory.
Ukraine has received the first batch of advanced M270 missile systems and added to the growing Western artillery arsenal, which Kiev says is changing the dynamics of the battlefield, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Friday.
In his speech, Zelenskiy said the United States would add additional assistance to a new budget bill to “significantly increase our defensive capacity”, including the development of Ukraine’s air force.
The latest military intelligence report on the situation in Ukraine is July 16, 2022.
Learn more about the UK government response: https://t.co/CkouEyTZAD
#StopWithUkraine
– Ministry of Defense (@DefenseHQ) 16 July 2022
Source: Breitbart
