Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky
\non Saturday accused Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “for
\nterror” after the operator of the facility reported major damage at the site.<\/p>\n
Energoatom, operator of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south of
\nthe country, said Saturday that parts of the facility had been “seriously
\ndamaged” by military strikes and one of its reactors was forced to shut down.<\/p>\n
Friday’s strikes had damaged a station containing nitrogen and oxygen and an
\nauxiliary building, Energoatom said on the Telegram messaging service.<\/p>\n
As hostilities raged on in the east and south of Ukraine, pro-Moscow
\nauthorities in the Russian-occupied Kherson region reported another
\nassassination attempt on a senior official.<\/p>\n
And the head of Amnesty International’s Ukraine office announced she had
\nresigned from the organisation over the group’s publication of a
\ncontroversial report that accused the country’s military of endangering
\ncivilians.<\/p>\n
Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for the attacks on the Zaporizhzhia
\nplant, Europe’s largest atomic power complex.<\/p>\n
Zelensky, in his nightly address on Saturday, once again accused Moscow of
\nterrorism, saying, “Russian terrorists became the first in the world to use
\nthe power plant… for terror.”<\/p>\n
The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell condemned the attack “as a
\nserious and irresponsible breach of nuclear safety rules and another example
\nof Russia’s disregard for international norms”.<\/p>\n
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog also expressed alarm. The strikes
\nunderline “the very real risk of a nuclear disaster”, said Rafael Grossi,
\ndirector general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).<\/p>\n
– Another assassination bid –<\/p>\n
An official with the Russian occupying authorities in Kherson was gravely
\nwounded Saturday in an attempted assassination, local Moscow-backed officials
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Vitaly Gur “is in hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, in a critical
\nstate”, an unnamed official told Russian state news agency TASS. Gur is the
\ndeputy chief of the Kakhovka district, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of
\nKherson city.<\/p>\n
This was the latest in a series of reported assassination attempts against
\nofficials in Ukrainian regions controlled by Russia.<\/p>\n
Although Russia has seized a large swath of the Kherson region and part of
\nnearby Zaporizhzhia in recent months, Ukraine’s forces have reclaimed some
\nterritory.<\/p>\n
In his address Saturday, Zelensky hit out at Amnesty International, comparing
\nthe rights group’s accusations against Ukraine’s military with its silence on
\nRussia’s actions.<\/p>\n
Referring to the strikes on the Zaporizhzhia plant, he said that although
\nthey represented “one of the most dangerous crimes against Ukrainians and all
\nEuropeans… for some reason, there’s still no report or even just a simple
\nmessage from Amnesty International about it.<\/p>\n
“It’s a very eloquent silence, which points out, once more, a manipulative
\nselectivity of this organisation,” he added.<\/p>\n
Amnesty sparked outrage in Ukraine with the report published Thursday that
\naccused the military of endangering civilians by establishing bases in
\nschools and hospitals, and launching counterattacks from heavily populated
\nareas.<\/p>\n
– Amnesty report row –<\/p>\n
The head of Amnesty’s Ukraine office quit the organisation in protest.<\/p>\n
“If you don’t live in a country invaded by occupiers who are tearing it to
\npieces, you probably don’t understand what it’s like to condemn an army of
\ndefenders,” Oksana Pokalchuk said on social media late Friday.<\/p>\n
“And there are no words in any language that can convey this to someone who
\nhas not experienced this pain.”<\/p>\n
Pokalchuk said she had tried to warn Amnesty’s senior leadership that the
\nreport was one-sided and failed to properly take into account the Ukrainian
\nposition but had been ignored.<\/p>\n
Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard expressed regret at her departure
\nand paid tribute to her work. But the organisation stands by its report.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Ukrainian officials said three grain ships left Ukraine after the
\nfirst in months sailed on Monday as part of a deal to avert widespread food
\nshortages.<\/p>\n
Another five cargo ships are due to leave the Ukrainian ports of Odessa and
\nChernomorsk on Sunday, said a statement from the Joint Coordination Centre of
\nthe Black Sea Grain Initiative — the organisation coordinating the operation
\nagreed between Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations.BSS\/AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday accused Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “for terror” after the operator of the facility reported major damage at the site. Energoatom, operator of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country, said Saturday that parts of the facility had been “seriously damaged” by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4","category-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29531,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29529\/revisions\/29531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}