By SUSIE BLANN (Associated Press)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s army intelligence has claimed, with out providing proof, that Russia is plotting a “large-scale provocation” at a nuclear energy plant it occupies within the southeast of the nation with the intention of disrupting a looming Ukrainian counteroffensive.
A press release launched Friday by the intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claimed that Russian forces would strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant, the most important in Europe, after which report a radioactive leak to be able to set off a world probe that may pause the hostilities and provides the Russian forces the respite they should regroup forward of the counteroffensive.
In order to make that occur, Russia “disrupted the rotation of personnel of the permanent monitoring mission” of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency that was scheduled for Saturday, the assertion mentioned. It didn’t supply proof to again up any of the claims.
The IAEA mentioned in an emailed response to the AP that it didn’t have any speedy touch upon the allegations, and Russian officers didn’t instantly touch upon the Ukrainian claims.
The White House mentioned it’s watching the scenario intently and has seen no indication that radioactive materials has been leaked.
The declare mirrors related statements Moscow commonly makes, alleging with out proof that Kyiv is plotting provocations involving varied harmful weapons or substances to be able to then accuse Russia of battle crimes.
It comes as Moscow’s army in Ukraine braces for a looming counteroffensive by Kyiv’s forces, which hasn’t began but however may start “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in every week, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, instructed the BBC in an interview Saturday.
The Zaporizhzhia energy plant is among the 10 greatest nuclear crops on the planet. It is positioned within the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia area in southeastern Ukraine. The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months, but it surely nonetheless wants energy and certified employees to function essential cooling techniques and different security options.
Fighting close to it repeatedly disrupted energy provides and has fueled fears of a possible disaster just like the one at Chernobyl, in northern Ukraine, the place a reactor exploded in 1986 and spewed lethal radiation, contaminating an enormous space on the planet’s worst nuclear catastrophe.
In different developments:
— Ukraine’s nationwide police mentioned a 60-year-old man was killed Saturday night by Russian shelling within the metropolis of Kupyansk within the Kharkiv area, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Russian border.
— Russia on Saturday reported extra assaults on its territory, with drones crashing in its western areas and areas on the border with Ukraine coming underneath shelling.
Two drones attacked an administrative constructing of an oil firm in Russia’s western Pskov area that borders Belarus, Latvia and Estonia, Pskov Gov. Mikhail Vedernikov reported Saturday. The constructing was broken as the results of an explosion, Vedernikov mentioned.
Another drone went down within the Tver area about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Moscow, native authorities mentioned.
Russia’s Belgorod area on the border with Ukraine on Saturday got here underneath a number of rounds of shelling, killing one individual, in line with its governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. In the neighboring Kursk area, which additionally borders Ukraine, one individual was killed by cross-border mortar fireplace, its Gov. Roman Starovoit mentioned.
— The British army mentioned Saturday that Russia’s personal army pressure, Wagner, is withdrawing from areas across the jap metropolis of Bakhmut that Moscow claims to have captured earlier this month.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin earlier this week introduced the pullout, saying Wagner would hand management over the ruined metropolis over to the Russian army. Some had been skeptical, nonetheless: Prigozhin is understood for making unverifiable, headline-grabbing statements on which he later backtracks.
But the British Defense Ministry mentioned in a sequence of tweets Saturday that Wagner fighters “have likely started to withdraw from some of their positions” round Bakhmut. “The Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister also corroborated the rotation out of Wagner forces in the outskirts of the town,” the ministry mentioned.
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Darlene Superville in Washington DC contributed to this story.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com”