KYIV, Sept 7,2022: Ukrainian forces have attacked the Russian-held eastern town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region, a senior pro-Moscow separatist official said, as Ukrainian officials remained guarded about how a counter offensive was faring.
Giving its regular situation report on Wednesday morning, Ukraine’s military said its ground forces had attacked seven Russian command points and 13 “objects of concentration of Russia’s manpower”, without saying where.
It also said its forces had repelled Russian assaults on various towns in the eastern Donetsk region, including the strategic city of Bakhmut.
In his evening address, however, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made scant mention of operations in the Kharkiv region, but he did say five Russian cruise missiles were shot down on Tuesday, most of them in the south.
NUCLEAR PLANT SAFETY
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres laid out specific steps for both sides to demilitarise the area around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
The first was for Russian and Ukrainian forces to commit to refraining from military activity in and around the plant, Europe’s biggest nuclear power station.
nternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors led by the agency’s chief, Rafael Grossi, braved shelling to cross the front line and reach the power station last week. Two experts from the UN nuclear watchdog have stayed on to maintain a long-term presence.
A long-awaited IAEA report released on Tuesday listed damaged parts of the plant, including a building housing nuclear fuel, a facility for storing radioactive waste, and a building housing an alarm system. It said the power station had been cut off several times from offsite power supplies critical to its safe operation.
The report avoided blaming either side for the damage. The plant was seized by Russian forces shortly after their Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, but is still run by Ukrainian technicians. It sits on a Russian-held bank of a huge reservoir, opposite Ukrainian positions across the water.
