MOSCOW: A local ceasefire took effect near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine on Friday to enable repairs to an external power line, Russian officials said.
The plant, Europe’s largest, has been under Russian control since shortly after the start of the war in 2022. It is not currently producing electricity, and relies on external power to keep its nuclear material cool and avoid a catastrophic accident.
Russia and Ukraine have frequently accused each other of jeopardizing safety at the plant by staging attacks nearby.
A similar local truce was established last year when the power lines went down for weeks and the site was forced to rely on emergency diesel generators.
The Russian management said in a statement that the latest ceasefire had been put in place with help from Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Russian officials said one of the external power lines was still working, and repairs to the other would take at least a week. Radiation levels are normal, the management said.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the matter.
The question of who should control and operate the huge plant is one of the contentious issues in slow-moving US-mediated peace talks which are set to resume in Geneva next month.
Russia says local truce established to enable repairs at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
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Russia says local truce established to enable repairs at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
- The plant, Europe’s largest, has been under Russian control since shortly after the start of the war in 2022
- Russia and Ukraine have frequently accused each other of jeopardizing safety at the plant by staging attacks nearby
Four killed in Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv exchange drone strikes
- Kyiv said Russian drone strikes had killed two people and wounded seven more in Kharkiv
- Synegubov said two people had been killed in the attack on the Shevchenkivsky district
KHARKIV, Ukraine: Russian and Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least four people Wednesday, officials said, as the war between the neighbors dragged on for more than four years with no diplomatic breakthrough in sight.
The latest attacks came with a third round of three-party talks derailed by the war in the Middle East, despite pressure from Washington on both sides to agree to an elusive peace deal.
Kyiv said Russian drone strikes had killed two people and wounded seven more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which lies close to the Russian border, was encircled at the beginning of Russia’s invasion four years ago.
It has been attacked almost daily since Moscow’s forces were pushed back later in 2022.
The governor of the wider region, Oleg Synegubov, said two people had been killed in the attack on the Shevchenkivsky district.
“A civilian enterprise caught fire as a result of the enemy strike,” he said, adding that three women and four men had been hospitalized.
Another Russian drone wounded 20 people in the afternoon, after hitting a civilian minibus in the southeastern city of Kherson, Ukrainian prosecutors said.
In the Russian-occupied part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow-installed authorities said two civilians had been killed in their car by a Ukrainian drone strike on the frontline town of Vasylivka.
“The danger of repeated strikes remains,” Kremlin-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.
