Ukraine’s nuclear power provider accused Russia on Saturday of “hijacking” the head of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, a facility now occupied by Russian troops and located in a region of Ukraine that was under the control of Russian President Vladimir Putin. is near illegally moved to the annex,
The Russian army confiscated the Director General of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, said at about 4 p.m. Friday, Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom. Treaties for Russia to absorb Moscow-controlled Ukrainian territory were signed just hours after Putin intensified his war.
Energoatom said Russian soldiers stopped Murashov’s car, blindfolded him, and then drove him to an undisclosed location.
“His detention by (Russia) puts the security of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at risk,” said Energoatom president Petro Kotin.
Kotin demanded that Russia immediately release Murashov.
Russia did not immediately acknowledge the seizure of the plant director. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has employees at the plant, did not immediately accept Murashov’s claim of Energoatom’s possession.
Zaporizhzhia Plant Repeatedly caught in the crossfire of war in Ukraine. Ukrainian technicians continued to operate it after Russian troops captured the power station. plant’s last reactor The facility was closed in September amid ongoing shelling.
On Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the war in Ukraine was at its peak. “A pivotal moment.” He called Putin’s decision to annex more territory – Russia now claims sovereignty over 15 percent of Ukraine – “the largest attempt at European territory by force since World War II.”
Elsewhere in Ukraine, however, a Ukrainian retaliation that embarrassed the Kremlin last month by freeing an area bordering Russia was on the verge of taking back more land, according to military analysts.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Ukraine would recapture another important Russian-occupied city in the country’s east in the next few days. Ukraine’s army is already surrounded city of lymanAbout 100 miles southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
Citing Russian reports, the institute said it appeared that Russian forces were retreating from Lyman. This matches online videos purportedly showing some Russian forces falling back as a Ukrainian soldier said they reached the outskirts of Lyman.
Ukrainian forces have not yet claimed to have taken Lyman, and Russian-backed forces claimed they were sending more troops to the area.
Ukraine is also making “incremental” gains around Kupiyansk and the east bank of the Oskil River, which became a major front line since the Ukrainian counteroffensive took control of the Kharkiv region in September.
Ukraine’s military claimed on Saturday that Russia would need to deploy cadets before completing their training due to wartime manpower shortages. Putin ordered a mass mobilization of Russian military reservists last week to supplement its troops in Ukraine, and thousands more men have fled the country To avoid call-ups.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army said that cadets at the Tyumen Military School and the Ryazan Airborne School would be sent to participate in the Russian mobilization. It did not provide any details about how it collected the information, although Kyiv electronically intercepted mobile phone calls from Russian soldiers amid the conflict.
In a daily intelligence briefing, the British Defense Ministry on Friday highlighted an attack in the city of Zaporizhzhya that killed 30 people and injured 88 others.
The British military said the Russians “almost certainly” attacked a manned convoy with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. The British said on Saturday that Russia is increasingly using anti-aircraft missiles to launch ground attacks, possibly due to a lack of weapons.
“Russia has extremely limited reserves of such missiles and is a high-value resource designed to shoot down modern aircraft and incoming missiles, not for use against ground targets,” the British said. . “Its use in a ground attack role has almost certainly been overshadowed by the overall weapons shortage, particularly long-range precision missiles.”
The British briefing noted that the attack happened while Putin was preparing to sign attachment treaties,
“Russia is spending strategically valuable military assets in attempts to gain strategic advantage and in the process killing civilians it now claims are its own citizens.”