Intense fighting in southern Ukraine, Zelensky meets with IAEA mission

MYKOLAIV | The Ukrainian army counter-offensive continued on Tuesday in southern Ukraine, where intense fighting was reported, while President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) received in Kyiv to “do the maximum” to avoid a nuclear disaster at the Zaporijjia power station.

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“Powerful explosions” occurred all day Monday and all night in the Kherson region, a city taken by the Russians at the start of the war, and “almost all” of its territory is in the grip of violent clashes, the Ukrainian presidency said in the morning.

The latter then broadcast a video of the meeting between IAEA experts – led by its director general Rafael Grossi – and Mr. Zelensky for which the international community must obtain from Russia “an immediate demilitarization” of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporijjia, the largest in Europe, which it has occupied since the beginning of March.

This, he added on this occasion, implies “the departure of all Russian servicemen with all their explosives, all their weapons” from these installations located in southern Ukraine and on the site of which Kyiv and Moscow s accuse each other of carrying out strikes.

“Powerful artillery attacks”

In Bereznehuvate, a rear town 70 km north of Kherson, AFP witnessed a constant passage of Ukrainian armor, while heavy artillery fire echoed in the surroundings.

Some soldiers were on their way to the front, like this small group waiting for their T74 tank, whose engine was overheating, to be repaired. Others came back and rested.

“We pushed them well,” boasts Victor, an infantryman in his sixties who does not want to say more. Its commander, Oleksandre, a Soviet veteran of the Afghan war, thinks the reconquest of Kherson will be “long and complicated”.

“Ukrainian Armed Forces have launched offensive actions in various directions,” the Ukrainian presidency announced, claiming that they destroyed “a number of ammunition depots” and “all major bridges” that allow vehicles to cross the Dnieper, the great river watering this part of Ukraine. And this in order to cut off supplies from Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014.

According to a memo from the British Ministry of Defence, “most (Russian) units around Kherson are probably understrength and have to rely on fragile supplies by ferry and pontoon bridges.”

The Ukrainian counterattack is mainly aimed at retaking Kherson, local officials said.

One of them, MP Serguiï Khlan, spoke on Ukrainian television of “powerful artillery attacks on enemy positions (…)”.

“Failure” of the Ukrainians, says Moscow

Russia for its part assured on Monday that it had repelled Ukrainian “offensive attempts” in the Kherson region as well as in that of Mykolaiv, further west.

“Due to the failure of the Ukrainian offensive (…), the enemy suffered heavy losses”, i.e. 1,200 men “in one day”, as well as dozens of military vehicles, proclaimed Tuesday the Russian Defense Ministry.

According to the “Southern” command of the Ukrainian army, the Russians fired 16 S-300 anti-aircraft missiles at Mykolaiv on Monday, which caused “significant” damage and left two civilians dead and 24 injured.

This information was unverifiable from independent sources.

The Russian bombardments have also not ceased on the front line which extends from north to south.

In the center of Kharkiv (northeast), Ukraine’s second largest city, at least five people died in Russian strikes, local authorities said on Tuesday.

In this context, the Ministers of Defense of the Member States of the European Union agreed on Tuesday, during an informal meeting in Prague, to start the preparatory work for a plan for the training of Ukrainian soldiers by the EU.

IAEA “this week” in Zaporizhia

Zaporizhia Region Governor Oleksandr Staroukh said at dawn on Tuesday that Russia had launched a missile attack on the city of the same name.

There were no casualties or significant damage, he said, however.

It is in this region that the IAEA team is now expected, “later this week”, to inspect the nuclear power plant it houses.

Accused by kyiv of having positioned artillery pieces there, Russia said on Tuesday “hope” that this mission would take place.

The Ukrainian operator Energoatom nevertheless claimed that the Russian soldiers “put pressure on the personnel of the plant to prevent them from revealing evidence of the occupier’s crimes”.

The Russian gas weapon

In addition, as autumn approaches, a further step towards the drying up of Russian gas flows to France was taken on Tuesday with the announcement by the Engie group of a further reduction in deliveries from the giant Gazprom.

For its part, Germany is “in a better position” to counter this threat, released Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Meanwhile, a United Nations-chartered ship carrying 23,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat destined for Ethiopia, where millions of people are suffering from hunger, arrived at the port of Djibouti, according to the World Food Program (WFP).