Ukraine recaptures some villages and moves east
Victory on the Southern Kherson Front
Putin announces that he has received the right to operate a nuclear power plant
Ukraine refutes ‘operating in our system’
Ukraine’s first advance into Donbas-Luhansk Oblast, where Russian President Vladimir Putin declared annexation of its territory. By pushing out the occupying forces of Russia, they recaptured a part of Luhansk, and they are literally moving forward.
According to CNN and other sources on the 5th (local time), Ukrainian governor Serhi Haidai of the Luhansk Oblast said that “the de-occupation of Luhansk has begun” and that “Ukrainian flags have been hoisted in six liberated villages.” The recaptured areas of the Ukrainian forces were known to be Khrekiuka, 50 km and 30 km from the strategic strategic points of Lisichansk, Luhansk Oblast and Riemann, Donetsk Oblast, respectively.
Ukraine also has a victory on the southern Kherson front. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on the same day that he had “liberated three additional cities in Kherson: Novovoskresenske, Novohrihorivka and Petro Pavliuka.”
The Russian military launched a suicide drone strike in the capital Kiiu on the same day. Kiiu Governor Olegsi Kuleva said in a telegram that six suicide drones attacked Villacherkhba, 80 kilometers south of Kiiu, and one person was injured.
In the West, there are even predictions that Ukraine might reclaim the Crimean Peninsula lost in 2014 thanks to the momentum that turned the tide. The Telegraph quoted a high-ranking U.S. military official as saying, “Ukraine’s retake of Crimea is now an obvious possibility that cannot be ignored.”
President Putin promised to stabilize the annexed region and announced that he would nationalize the Zaporiza nuclear power plant in Ukraine as a Russian asset. Following the forced annexation of the four occupied territories, it means taking over Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporiza, operated by the Ukrainian state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Bershinin unilaterally notified that the Zaporiza nuclear power plant is now part of the Russian Federation and must be operated under the supervision of the authorities. Petro Kotin Energoatom, president of Ukraine’s side, dismissed the statement, saying, “[The Zaporiza nuclear power plant]will be operated in the Ukrainian energy system in accordance with Ukrainian laws.”
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Secretary-General Rafael Grossi will visit Moscow and Kiiu this week to discuss safety issues at the Zaporiza nuclear power plant.
The United States has responded in earnest to Russia’s escalating nuclear threat. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it spent $290 million (regarding 410 billion won) to purchase N-Plate, an acute radiation syndrome (ARS) treatment from American pharmaceutical company Amgen. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence officials believe that Ukrainian government organizations were involved in the death of Darya Dugin, the daughter of Putin’s ideological landlord, Alexander Dugin, in a car explosion in August, CNN reported. The source said that US intelligence officials were also unaware of the plans for the explosion, and it was unclear whether President Zelensky was aware of the plans in advance.
Reporter Lee Tae-kwon
By Yoon Yeon-jung
