KYIV: Kyiv on Thursday reported progress in its counteroffensive on the eastern and southern fronts, despite contending with strong resistance from Russian troops.
The chief of the UN’s atomic watchdog arrived in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzia — home to Europe’s largest nuclear plant and one of the current fronts — to assess risks to the site following the destruction of a major dam.
His visit came as Kyiv, bolstered with Western weapons and training, pushed its long-awaited effort to force Russian troops off its territory.
AFP journalists saw Ukrainian artillery continue to target Russian positions around the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region.
Moscow claimed victory in Bakhmut last month after the longest battle of the war that claimed thousands of lives and left the city in ruins.
“The enemy is pulling up additional reserves and is trying with all its might to prevent the advance of Ukrainian forces,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar told a briefing.
Malyar reported an advance of more than three kilometers (1.8 miles) in the area of Bakhmut over the past ten days.
Since the start of the offensive in early June Ukrainian forces have recaptured seven settlements and more than 100 square kilometers (under 40 square miles) of territory, said Oleksiy Gromov of the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff.
“There is a gradual but steady advance of the armed forces” in the south, Malyar told reporters.
“At the same time, the enemy is putting up powerful resistance” on the southern front, she said, referring to mined fields, explosive drones and intense shelling.
Russia said it had repelled all Ukrainian assaults, with President Vladimir Putin this week claiming that Ukraine suffered near “catastrophic” losses.
The region of Zaporizhzhia, where fighting has stepped up, is home to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Its safety has been a major concern ever since Russian forces seized it more than a year ago, but the destruction of a nearby dam has sparked new fears.
The Russian-held Kakhovka dam, destroyed last week in an attack Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for, formed a reservoir that provided the cooling water for the plant.
UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi arrived at the plant on Thursday to assess any damage there, a Russian official said.
Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was initially expected to tour the site Wednesday.
“I want to make my own assessment,” Grossi said during a briefing in Kyiv this week.
“I want to go there, discuss with the management there what measures they are taking, and then make as I said a more definitive assessment of what kind of danger we have.”
Since the conflict’s start Grossi has warned of the potential for a nuclear accident at the plant, where a permanent IAEA team is based.
The IAEA has warned that the Kakhovka dam disaster, which sparked mass evacuations, further complicated “an already precarious nuclear safety and security situation” at the plant.
Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of shelling around the plant.
Ukraine said Russia launched another series of strikes overnight, using four missiles and 20 Iranian-made drones.
The Ukrainian armed force said it intercepted all the drones and one missile, with the remaining three hitting the central city of Kryvyi Rig.
Russian troops already pummeled the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, killing 12 people.
“Three rockets hit two industrial enterprises that had nothing to do with the military,” the head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul said.
The Russian army said it hit drone production sites, adding that “all the assigned targets have been hit.”
In recent weeks Ukraine has increased drone attacks on Russian-controlled territory.
In the latest incident, Russia’s forces downed nine drones over Moscow-annexed Crimea, the Moscow-installed governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Thursday.
Ukraine claims gains despite Russia ‘powerful resistance’
https://arab.news/p9m7a
Ukraine claims gains despite Russia ‘powerful resistance’
- "The enemy is pulling up additional reserves and is trying with all its might to prevent the advance of Ukrainian forces," said Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar
- He reported an advance of more than three kilometres in the area of Bakhmut over the past ten days
Agonizing wait as Switzerland works to identify New Year’s fire victims
- Authorities begin moving bodies from burned-out bar in luxury ski resor Crans-Montana
- At least 40 people were killed in one of Switzerland's worst tragedies
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland: Families endured an agonizing wait for news of their loved ones Friday as Swiss investigators rushed to identify victims of a ski resort fire at a New Year’s celebration that killed at least 40 people.
Authorities began moving bodies from the burned-out bar in the luxury ski resort town Crans-Montana late Friday morning, with the first silver-colored hearse rolling into the funeral center in nearby Sion shortly after 11:00 am (1000 GMT), AFP journalists saw.
Around 115 people were also injured in the fire, many of them critical condition.
As the scope of the tragedy — one of Switzerland’s worst — began to sink in, Crans-Montana appeared enveloped in a stunned silence.
“The atmosphere is heavy,” Dejan Bajic, a 56-year-old tourist from Geneva who has been coming to the resort since 1974, told AFP.
“It’s like a small village; everyone knows someone who knows someone who’s been affected,” he said.
It is not yet clear what set off the blaze at Le Constellation, a bar popular with young tourists, at around 1:30 am (0030 GMT) Thursday.
Bystanders described scenes of panic and chaos as people tried to break the windows to escape and others, covered in burns, poured into the street.
‘Screaming in pain’
Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, told AFP he had seen “bodies lying here, ... covered with a white sheet,” and “young people, totally burned, who were still alive... Screaming in pain.”
The exact death toll was still being established.
And it could rise, with canton president Mathias Reynard telling the regional newspaper Wallizer Bote that at least 80 of the 115 injured were in critical condition.
Swiss authorities warned it could take days to identify everyone who perished, an agonizing wait for family and friends.
Condolences poured in from around the world, including from Pope Leo XIV, who offered “compassion and solidarity” to victims’ families.
Online, desperate appeals abound to find the missing.
“We’ve tried to reach our friends. We took loads of photos and posted them on Instagram, Facebook, all possible social networks to try to find them,” said Eleonore, 17. “But there’s nothing. No response.”
‘The apocalypse’
The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear.
Le Constellation had a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who took office on Thursday, called the fire “a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions” and announced that flags would be flown at half-mast for five days.
“We thought it was just a small fire — but when we got there, it was war,” Mathys, from the neighboring village of Chermignon-d’en-Bas, told AFP. “That’s the only word I can use to describe it: the apocalypse.”
Authorities have declined to speculate on what caused the tragedy, saying only that it was not an attack.
Several witness accounts, broadcast by various media, pointed to sparklers mounted on champagne bottles and held aloft by restaurant staff as part of a regular “show” for patrons.
‘Dramatic’
Pictures and videos shared on social media also showed sparklers on champagne bottles held into the air, as an orange glow began spreading across the ceiling.
One video showed the flames advancing quickly as revellers initially continued to dance.
One young man playfully attempted to extinguish the flames with a large white cloth, but the scene became panic-stricken as people scrambled and screamed in the dark against a backdrop of smoke and flames.
The canton’s chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, said investigators would examine whether the bar met safety standards.
Red and white caution tape, flowers and candles adorned the street outside, while police shielded the site with white screens.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who said 13 Italians had been injured in the fire, and six remained missing, was among those to lay flowers at the site.
The French foreign ministry said nine French citizens figured among the injured, and eight others remained unaccounted for.
After emergency units at local hospitals filled, many of the injured were transported across Switzerland and beyond.
Patients are being treated in Italy, France and Germany, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country was ready to provide “specialized medical care to 14 injured.”
Multiple sources told AFP the bar owners were French nationals: a couple originally from Corsica who, according to a relative, are safe, but have been unreachable since the tragedy.
