June 23 : Russia urged the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday to ensure Ukraine does not shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, saying it was otherwise operating safely.
Alexei Likhachev, chief executive of the Russian state nuclear energy firm Rosatom, made the comments at a meeting with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in the Russian city of Kaliningrad, Rosatom said in a statement, after Grossi visited the plant last week.
“We expect concrete steps from the IAEA aimed at preventing strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, both on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and on adjacent territory and critical infrastructure facilities,” Rosatom quoted its chief as saying in a statement.
The IAEA said this week that the power plant was “grappling with ... water-related challenges” after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam emptied the vast reservoir on whose southern bank the plant sits.
It also said the military situation in the area had become increasingly tense as Kyiv began a counteroffensive agaMOSCOW: Russia urged the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday to ensure Ukraine does not shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, saying it was otherwise operating safely.
Alexei Likhachev, chief executive of the Russian state nuclear energy firm Rosatom, made the comments at a meeting with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in the Russian city of Kaliningrad, Rosatom said in a statement, after Grossi visited the plant last week.
“We expect concrete steps from the IAEA aimed at preventing strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, both on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and on adjacent territory and critical infrastructure facilities,” Rosatom quoted its chief as saying in a statement.
The IAEA said this week that the power plant was “grappling with ... water-related challenges” after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam emptied the vast reservoir on whose southern bank the plant sits.
It also said the military situation in the area had become increasingly tense as Kyiv began a counteroffensive against the Russian forces that have seized control of swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Moscow and Kyiv have regularly accused each other of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power station, with its six offline reactors. International efforts to establish a demilitarised zone around it have so far failed.
Ukraine this week accused Russia of planning a “terrorist” attack at the plant involving the release of radiation, while Moscow on Friday detained five people who it said were planning to smuggle radioactive caesium-137 at the request of a Ukrainian buyer in order to stage a nuclear incident.
inst the Russian forces that have seized control of swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Moscow and Kyiv have regularly accused each other of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power station, with its six offline reactors. International efforts to establish a demilitarised zone around it have so far failed.
Ukraine this week accused Russia of planning a “terrorist” attack at the plant involving the release of radiation, while Moscow on Friday detained five people who it said were planning to smuggle radioactive caesium-137 at the request of a Ukrainian buyer in order to stage a nuclear incident. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Russia asks IAEA to ensure Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant security
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Russia asks IAEA to ensure Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant security
- The IAEA said this week that the power plant was "grappling with ... water-related challenges"
- Moscow and Kyiv have regularly accused each other of shelling Europe's largest nuclear power station
US ends protection for Somalis amid escalating migrant crackdown
- Donald Trump: ‘I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota’
- Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis last Wednesday
MINNEAPOLIS: The United States said Tuesday it would end a special protected status for Somalis, telling them they must leave the country by mid-March under an escalating crackdown on the community.
There is a large Somali community in Minnesota, the midwestern US state at the forefront of raids and searches by immigration officers, one of whom shot and killed a local woman last week, sparking protests.
In recent weeks Washington has lashed out at Somali immigrants, alleging large-scale public benefit fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the country with around 80,000 members.
The Department of Homeland Security said on X it was “ENDING Temporary Protected Status for Somalians in the United States.”
“Our message is clear. Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves,” it said.
“Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) shields certain foreigners from deportation to disaster zones and allows them the right to work.
In November 2025, US President Donald Trump wrote on social media: “I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota.”
On Tuesday, the Republican president took to his Truth Social channel to attack Democrats who lead Minneapolis, its twin city of St. Paul, and Minnesota.
“Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people,” Trump wrote.
“FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!“
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) meanwhile has kept up its large-scale migrant sweeps across Minnesota, including the city of Detroit Lakes on Monday.
The Minneapolis Police Department said its overtime bill between January 8 and January 11 was $2 million. That period marked the height of anti-ICE protests sparked by the dramatic killing, which was filmed and widely shared online.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis last Wednesday.
Fraud allegations
Students have protested against the situation in Minnesota, including in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove, local media reported.
The Trump administration in recent months has latched onto news of a large-scale public benefit fraud scandal to carry out immigration raids and harsher policies targeting Minnesota’s Somali community.
Federal charges have been filed against 98 people accused of embezzlement of public funds and — as US Attorney General Pam Bondi stressed on Monday — 85 of the defendants were “of Somali descent.”
Fifty-seven people have already been convicted in the scheme to divert $300 million in public grants intended to distribute free meals to children — but the meals never existed, prosecutors said.
Republican elected officials and federal prosecutors accuse local Democratic authorities of turning a blind eye to numerous warnings because the fraud involved Minnesota’s Somali community.
Democratic Governor Tim Walz — former vice president Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 election — rejects the accusation.
While the case became public in 2022, prosecutors ramped it up again this year with hotly politicized revelations.
Situated on the Horn of Africa, war-torn Somalia has consistently been categorized as one of the world’s least developed countries by the United Nations, and the US State Department maintains a level-four “Do Not Travel” advisory, its strongest warning.
