Live / Russia imposes conditions to give access to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

Vladimir Putin today accused the United States of wanting to “drag” the war in Ukraine and Western countries of trying to install a “system similar to NATO” in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Reuters, at the opening of the international security conference being held in Moscow, Putin also attacked the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who was in Taiwan this month; for the Russian president, it was all a “carefully provoked provocation.”

“It was an extraordinary trip.” Nancy Pelosi says China ‘doesn’t prevent’ US from visiting Taiwan

There are already reports of two people injured after the explosion of a temporary weapons depot in Maiske, in the occupied region of Crimea. According to Sergey Asyonov, an official chosen by Russia and present in the region, the detonation of ammunition continues, while the weapons depot continues to burn.

The Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Independent also quotes the Russian agency RIA Novosti, which states that some 2,000 people were evacuated from the vicinity of the warehouse.

Sergey Aksyonov, a Russian-installed representative in Crimea, said two people were injured and the detonation of ammunition continues.

According to the Russian state-controlled RIA Novosti news site, some 2,000 people were evacuated from Maiske following the blasts.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 16, 2022

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that Russia does not need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, at the height of tension over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

In a speech during the international security conference in Moscow, quoted by The Guardian, the Russian leader assured that the military operations in Ukraine are being planned by the United States and the United Kingdom and that NATO has increased its presence in central Europe several times. . and this

The first humanitarian ship chartered by the UN to transport Ukrainian cereals left the port of Pivdenny today, bound for Africa, with some 23,000 tons, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine announced.

“This morning, the cargo ship departed for the port of Djibouti, where the food will be delivered upon arrival to consumers in Ethiopia,” the ministry wrote on the Telegram messaging platform.

The ship was chartered by the United Nations World Food Program. Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov said he expected “two or three more” UN-chartered ships to leave soon.

This is the first shipment of food aid out of Ukraine since kyiv and Moscow signed an export deal for Ukrainian grain in July, blocked due to the war between the two countries.

This morning the reports and videos are multiplying, both on the Ukrainian and Russian sides, of explosions in the Crimea region.

The Russian Defense Ministry has already confirmed that the fire occurred in an area that was being used temporarily as a weapons depot. The information is being advanced by the public agency RIA. The ministry adds that there are no injuries, but does not reveal what caused the fire.

The current leader of the annexed region chosen by Russia, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Telegram (quoted by the RIA agency and The Guardian) that he had left the town of Dzhankoi for the village of Mayskoye after an “incident”, according to Russia.

Zelensky adviser Anton Gerashchenko posted a video of the explosions on his Twitter:

Crimea, Dzhankoi

Explosions in the ammunition depot: means in the occupied Crimea pic.twitter.com/6zowH6H6Nw

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 16, 2022

Zelensky’s sweep of high-ranking officials in Ukraine continues. This time he changed or fired the heads of four regional departments of the country’s security services.

According to presidential decrees published on his official website and quoted by the Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Independent, this happened in kyiv (where the department was headed by Serhiy Zayats), Ternopil (Yuriy Boreychuk) and Lviv (Artem Bondarenko takes over kyiv, so Lviv also needs a replacement). Recently, Zelensky even spoke, in the context of the changes in top positions, about the “self-purification” that Ukraine must do in the highest state positions.

The last few hours were marked by tension around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that Russia withdraw its troops, warning of the risk of a nuclear disaster, Russia admitted the possibility of a UN visit to the nuclear plant, but wants to impose conditions.

According to The Guardian, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which works within the UN, has assured that it has the means to guarantee the “logistics and security” of a visit to Zaporizhia. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Ukraine and Russia still need to agree on the visit.

Russia, according to the state agency RIA, which quotes Igor Vishnevetsky, vice president of the department of nuclear proliferation and arms control of the Russian government, warns that the United Nations mission will not be able to pass through the Ukrainian capital, the city of kyiv. “It’s a big risk,” he warned. In addition, he added that the mission will not be able to request the demilitarization of the plant, since it will only have the objective of verifying the security conditions and the demands that the UN agency imposes on these plants.

Good day,

In this liveblog we will be following all the latest news and information about the development of the war in Ukraine and its consequences.

In this link you can remember the news that marked yesterday, with Zelensky’s warnings about the risks of a possible nuclear accident.

Zelensky warns that Russia’s refusal to liberate Zaporizhia could lead to a nuclear accident that affects all of Europe