Kherson, located on the right bank of the Dnieper River, is linked by three bridges, now impassable, to the rest of the homonymous region, which borders the Crimean peninsula, from where the Russian troops receive their supplies, a situation that makes it extremely vulnerable their situation, according to Ukrainian military experts,
Ukraine has begun an offensive in the south of the country, which Russia claims to have rejected, while a mission of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) tries to make its way to the central of Zaporiyia.
The above, from kyiv to the nuclear power plant, for inspection work in the midst of fighting in the area.
Although both Moscow and kyiv have declared their interest in the IAEA mission fulfilling its mission.
It is expected that he will be able to inspect the state of the largest nuclear plant on the European continent, since its proximity to the fighting zones makes it difficult to carry out that task.
Pro-Russians denounce attack on Zaporizhia plant
The pro-Russian administration of Energodar, a city in southern Ukraine controlled by the Russian Army and home to the largest power plant in Europe, denounced a new Ukrainian attack on the plant on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the territory of the Zaporizhia NPP and the city’s waterfront, the press office of the urban administration said.
According to the statement, the Ukrainian forces used large-caliber artillery and “two hits were recorded next to the spent fuel storage building.”
The pro-Russian administration assured that with these actions the Ukrainian side seeks to prevent the visit to the plant by the IAEA mission. The previous one, headed by the general director of the organism, the Argentine Rafael Grossi.
Ukraine accuses Russia
In turn, kyiv accused the Russian Army of bombing possible routes by which the mission might reach the plant.
“Everything was predictable. Russia premeditatedly attacks the corridors through which the IAEA mission must access the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, wrote on Twitter today.
He explained that the Russian military is carrying out these actions to propose a passage through the annexed Crimean peninsula and certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, occupied by Russia, something to which the Ukrainian government is strictly opposed.
Podolyak insisted that IAEA experts must reach the plant through territory controlled by Ukraine.
The demands that Russian troops leave the nuclear power plant and that only Ukrainian personnel be present at its facilities remain unaltered.
Kremlin reaffirms its interest in the Zaporizhia plant
“We are confident that the (IAEA) mission will be carried out, as agreed. I repeat it once more: we are interested in this mission and have been waiting for it for a long time,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said today.
He added that Russia insists on “drawing the attention of the entire world community to the irresponsible behavior of the Ukrainian military, which with its attacks on the Zaporizhia plant endangers the facility, the surrounding territories and a much broader geography.”
“We are convinced that European countries (…) that have great influence in kyiv should use it to prohibit the continuation of these very, very dangerous actions,” Peskov stressed.
At the same time, he insisted that “the special military operation (in Ukraine) continues methodically, according to the plans, and all its objectives will be fulfilled.”
Fighting rages in Ukraine
The arrival of the IAEA mission in kyiv -confirmed by the Ministry of Energy to the Interfax-Ukraine agency- has coincided with the upsurge in military actions in the south of the country.
There, the Ukrainian forces launched an offensive on Monday in which, according to the Ukrainian military command, they broke one of the three Russian defensive lines in several sectors of the front.
The Ukrainian authorities warned that they will not offer information on the operations so as not to hinder their march.
“You will not hear anything concrete from anyone with responsibilities, because it is a war. But the occupiers must know that we will drive them off the border, our border, whose line has not changed. And the occupiers know this very well,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his traditional evening address.
Despite the secrecy regarding the objective of the Ukrainian offensive, all indications indicate that it is regarding the recovery of Kherson, the only regional capital conquered by Russian troops since they entered Ukraine on February 24 of that year.
