IAEA: Power line from Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant knocked out again
Moscow, 4 September 2022 (dpa/MIA) - The Russian-held Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine was once again the site of fighting on Saturday, despite the presence of international inspectors.
The embattled plant has once again seen its connection to the power grid interrupted, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
The last still functioning main line to the external network failed and the electricity is now being forwarded via a reserve cable, the UN's nuclear watchdog said late Saturday.
A similar incident had already occurred after a shelling last week, noted the agency, which has a small team present at the plant.
The were reports on Saturday of more shelling at the Russian-held nuclear plant, the biggest in Europe. The Russian Defence Ministry also accused the Ukrainian army of trying, and failing, to retake the site.
Russian media had earlier reported that a power line had been damaged in the fighting and that supplies to areas still under Kiev's control had been disrupted.
The complex has faced a barrage of artillery fire, with Moscow and Kiev trading blame for the strikes that risk nuclear disaster.
A 14-member IAEA team visited the complex on Thursday to inspect the war damage. Six members stayed behind. That number is to be reduced to two in the coming days, the UN nuclear watchdog said.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Friday night that the "physical integrity of the building has been violated" but that critical safety systems were functioning.
Moscow also gave an update on Ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive to push Russian forces out of the country's south, claiming the effort was coming at a heavy cost to Ukrainians.
The "regime" in Kiev is continuing its unsuccessful attempts to recapture the area between the cities of Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih, the Defence Ministry said in Moscow.
In the past day, the ministry said Ukraine lost 23 tanks and 27 combat vehicles, plus more than 230 soldiers.
The Ukrainian army itself releases little information on the progress of the counteroffensive it launched at the start of the week.
Several children in Ukraine were killed and injured as a result of Russian attacks and the negligent handling of ammunition, local Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
"In Zelenodolsk, the Russians killed a 9-year-old boy," the military governor of the town in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Resnichenko, wrote on Telegram.
A total of about 10 people were injured by the rocket attacks, most of them seriously, he said.
There were also rocket attacks in the Mykolayiv region in southern Ukraine.
There, an 8-year-old child is said to have been killed by the impacts, while two other children and four adults were injured.
In the north of Ukraine, in the Chernihiv region, the authorities also reported numerous Russian artillery strikes, in which several buildings were damaged.
Here, however, negligence on the part of the Ukrainians themselves was to blame for the injuries to several children: A shot was fired from a grenade launcher at a weapons exhibition in the regional capital of Chernihiv. Five people, including four children between the ages of 2 and 12, were injured in the incident. The public prosecutor's office has launched investigations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the injury of several children at the gun show in Chernihiv. The incident was "unacceptable" and the culprits of this negligent display would be punished, the Ukrainian president promised in his daily video message on Saturday evening.
Speaking in the same video message, Zelensky accused Russia of waging an energy war and called for more unity in Europe.
"Russia is trying these days to increase the energy pressure on Europe even more; The pumping of gas through Nord Stream has been completely stopped," Zelensky said. "Russia wants to destroy the normal life of every European - in all countries of our continent."
The aim, he said, was to weaken and intimidate states in Europe. In addition to tanks and missiles, Russia also uses energy as a weapon. This winter, Russia is preparing a "decisive blow" in the energy sector. Only greater cohesion would help to combat this, Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader called on European countries to better coordinate their countermeasures and provide each other with more help. In addition, the pressure on Russia must be increased in order to limit the country's oil and gas revenues, he said.
The background to the accusations is that Gazprom did not restart gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1 to Germany on Saturday morning, contrary to previous plans. The Russian energy company justified this with an alleged leak in the Portovaya compressor station.