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Situation at Zaporizhzhia plant ‘remains perilous’
The UN nuclear agency’s chief said Wednesday that the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant “remains perilous” following a Russian missile strike this month that disconnected the plant from the grid.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant needs a reliable electricity supply to operate pumps that circulate water to cool reactors and pools holding nuclear fuel.
Since a Russian strike on March 9, the plant has relied on a single backup power line that remains “disconnected and under repair”, according to Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Nuclear safety at the ZNPP remains in a precarious state,” Grossi said in a statement on Wednesday.
The plant’s lack of access to the grid and necessary repair work on its last emergency power line could cause a complete loss of power, making it reliant on diesel generators for the seventh time since Russia captured it a year ago, Grossi said.
“I once again call for a commitment from all sides to secure nuclear safety and security protection at the plant.”
The statement continues:
The situation at the plant remains perilous. The IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) team currently present at the plant was informed that restoration of the line had been planned for 5, 10 and then 13 March but had not been possible. The latest reconnection date is scheduled for 23 March.
Key events
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said on Thursday he would discuss a peace plan for Ukraine with Chinese President Xi Jinping during an official visit to China next week.
“We will also talk about Ukraine where the most important thing is to be able to guarantee a stable and lasting peace,” Reuters reports Sanchez told the media in Brussels
Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas on Thursday spoke against any weakening of sanctions against Russia under a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, and called for the G7 to tighten its oil cap to squeeze Russia’s revenue more.
“We know that Russia is earning less from the oil. We see the economic sanctions, including the oil price cap, are having am effect on the Russian economy and their ability to fuel the war machine,” Reuters reports she said on arriving to talks among the EU’s 27 national leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
“We should continue with that,” she said, adding that Estonia would agree to raise the cap again should oil prices rise. She spoke against any weakening of sanctions against Russia as sought by Moscow in the grain deal talks. “We shouldn’t weaken the sanctions,” she said.
A video is circulating on social media, reported by Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, of the Ukrainian national flag flying from a tall mast in Crimea, a region annexed by Russia in 2014 in a move which is not widely recognised internationally. It appears to have been filmed near the village of Hrushivka.
A Ukrainian flag flies from a communications tower near the village of Hrushivka, about 18km north of the town of Sudak in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea. Even after 9 years of Russian military occupation, some Crimeans still seem prepared to risk demonstrating patriotism. pic.twitter.com/sgTE3ahwCc
— Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) March 23, 2023
The Guardian has not independently verified the location, or the date the video was made.
The air alarm which has been in force across Ukraine for much of the last two hours has ended.
Any attempt to arrest President Vladimir Putin after the international criminal court (ICC) issued a warrant for the Kremlin chief would amount to a declaration of war against Russia, his ally Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday, while directly threatening to attack the seat of any government that allowed it to happen.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant on Friday, accusing Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. It said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bore individual criminal responsibility.
Reuters reports that the hawkish former president Medvedev told Russian media that the ICC, which countries including Russia, China and the US do not recognise, was a “legal nonentity” that had never done anything significant.
Any attempt to detain Putin, though, would be a declaration of war, said Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s security council.
“Let’s imagine – obviously this [is a] situation which will never be realised – but nevertheless let us imagine that it was realised: the current head of the nuclear state went to a territory, say Germany, and was arrested,” Medvedev said.
“What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation,” he said in a video posted on Telegram. “And in that case, all our assets – all our missiles – would fly to the Bundestag, to the Chancellor’s office.”
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, offers this news roundup this morning on its official Telegram channel:
As a result of an attack by Russian drones [yesterday] on a hostel in Rzhyshchiv, Kyiv region, nine people were killed, the state emergency service reported. Rescue operations are completed.
In the middle of the night, the Russian military shelled Kramatorsk in Donetsk region: residential buildings, a boiler house and garages were damaged. On 22 March, shelling in the region killed two people and injured four others.
At night, the Russian army shelled the Kherson regional cardio centre; there were no casualties. Fifty-four times during the day, the Russian Federation fired heavy artillery and “Grad missiles” in the Kherson region; one person was killed, two were wounded.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Donetsk and Kherson are two of the partly occupied regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed.
Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, has posted to Telegram to say: “The aggressor does not give up hope of taking Bakhmut at any cost, despite the losses in manpower and equipment.”
He goes on to write that the enemy is losing “considerable strength” and that “very soon we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we once did near Kyiv, Kharkiv, [Balakliia] and Kupiansk”, all areas that Ukraine has previously liberated from Russian occupation.
He praised his troops for “superhuman resilience, courage and bravery” under “the continuous fire of the enemy’s artillery and aircraft”.
An air alert is being declared across Ukraine.
The UK Ministry of Defence has issued its daily intelligence briefing on the situation in Ukraine. It writes:
Since the start of March 2023, heavy fighting has continued in parts of the Svatove-Kremina sector of the frontline in northern Luhansk oblast. Russia has partially regained control over the immediate approaches to Kremina town, which was under immediate Ukrainian threat earlier in the year.
In places, Russia has made gains of up to several kilometres. Russian commanders are likely trying to expand a security zone west from the defence lines they have prepared along higher ground, and integrate the natural obstacle of the Oskil River.
They likely seek to recapture Kupiansk, a logistics node.
Charlotte Graham-McLay
A former New Zealand soldier who drew an online following with his dispatches from the frontline of the Ukraine war has been killed in fighting there.
The death of Kane Te Tai, 38, was confirmed by New Zealand’s foreign ministry Thursday, citing Ukrainian government sources. Te Tai, who fought with the International Legion, is the third New Zealander known to have died in Ukraine.
For many in New Zealand, Te Tai was the face of the country’s unofficial involvement in Ukraine’s war. He fundraised for equipment and undertook news interviews before he left New Zealand in May 2022, and documented his friendships, battles and daily life on Instagram and Facebook.
A video he posted earlier this month captured a moment when he was unexpectedly reunited with a Ukrainian friend who had been held hostage for months by Russian troops, and whom Te Tai recognised when the man began to call out: “New Zealand! New Zealand!”
“My brother!” Te Tai replied.
Read Related Also: U.S. Drone Collides With Russian Jet Over Black Sea
Situation at Zaporizhzhia plant ‘remains perilous’
The UN nuclear agency’s chief said Wednesday that the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant “remains perilous” following a Russian missile strike this month that disconnected the plant from the grid.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant needs a reliable electricity supply to operate pumps that circulate water to cool reactors and pools holding nuclear fuel.
Since a Russian strike on March 9, the plant has relied on a single backup power line that remains “disconnected and under repair”, according to Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Nuclear safety at the ZNPP remains in a precarious state,” Grossi said in a statement on Wednesday.
The plant’s lack of access to the grid and necessary repair work on its last emergency power line could cause a complete loss of power, making it reliant on diesel generators for the seventh time since Russia captured it a year ago, Grossi said.
“I once again call for a commitment from all sides to secure nuclear safety and security protection at the plant.”
The statement continues:
The situation at the plant remains perilous. The IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) team currently present at the plant was informed that restoration of the line had been planned for 5, 10 and then 13 March but had not been possible. The latest reconnection date is scheduled for 23 March.
EU leaders gather for summit
Six weeks after European leaders last gathered in Brussels, they’re meeting again for two days. The war in Ukraine is high on the agenda (though tensions between France and Germany over nuclear energy and combustion engines loom large) and UN secretary general, António Guterres, will be joining the summit for the first day.
Among the items on the agenda over the next two days are, according to the council:
Accountability of perpetrators
Further increasing collective pressure on Russia
The use of frozen assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine
Support to help meet Ukraine’s military and defence needs
Global food security
Address high energy prices
Reduce gas demand
Ensure security of supply
Phase out dependency on Russian fossil fuels
Wording on the summit points out that the EU has “made available” €67bn (US$73bn) to Ukraine since the start of the war. That’s equivalent to about 27% of Ukraine’s total GDP for 2021, before Russia invaded.
Bakhmut offensive slowing says US thinktank
A months-long ground assault on the eastern town of Bakhmut could be stalling in the face of fierce resistance, according to US, Ukrainian and British military experts.
Russian forces unleashed a wave of air strikes in the north and south of Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin bid farewell on Wednesday to Chinese leader Xi Jinping following a two day visit to Moscow by his fellow autocrat and “dear friend”.
Bakhmut is the site of Europe’s deadliest infantry battle since World War Two. The Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, said in its most recent update that the pace of Russian operations around Bakhmut “appears to be slowing amid Western reporting that Russian forces may be attempting to launch offensives in other directions.”
The update goes on to say:
Russian forces are currently increasing the tempo of their offensive operations around Avdiivka aiming to encircle the settlement, and it is possible that Russian forces are doing so at the expense of their operations around Bakhmut and the stalled offensive around Vuhledar.
British military intelligence believes Russia’s assault on the town could be running out of steam. There was still a danger, however, that the Ukrainian garrison in Bakhmut could be surrounded, Britain’s defence ministry said in its intelligence update on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s military General Staff agreed that Russia’s offensive potential in Bakhmut was declining.
Bakhmut has become a key objective for Moscow, which sees the town as a stepping stone toward completing its conquest of the eastern Donbas region.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our continuing live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan taking you through the day’s news.
Our top story this morning: Russia’s months-long ground assault on the eastern town of Bakhmut could be stalling in the face of fierce resistance, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank.
In its latest update, the ISW writes, “The tempo of Russian operations around Bakhmut appears to be slowing amid Western reporting that Russian forces may be attempting to launch offensives in other directions”.
And the European Council is meeting today in Brussels, where leaders will discuss the war and Europe’s continuing support for Ukraine. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will also take part in today’s meeting.
We’ll bring you the latest on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said China is watching “very carefully” to see how Washington and the world respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the end of president Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, Blinken said that if Russia was allowed to attack Ukraine with impunity, it would “open a Pandora’s box” for would-be aggressors and lead to a “world of conflict”. He added that China has not yet crossed the line of providing lethal aid to Moscow.
Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia was a “journey of friendship, cooperation and peace”, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said, as China’s president ended his three-day visit to Moscow. Wang Wenbin reiterated Beijing’s claims that it remained neutral in the Ukraine conflict and said China would “continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political settlement of the Ukrainian issue”.
Vladimir Putin has no immediate plans for peace in Ukraine, so the west needs to brace itself to supply lethal aid to Kyiv for a long time to come, Nato’s secretary general has warned in an interview with the Guardian. The fierce fighting, currently centred around Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, demonstrated Russia was willing “to just throw in thousands and thousands more troops, to take many casualties for minimal gains”, the head of Nato said.
At least one person was killed and 33 wounded by a twin Russian missile strike on two residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine’s east, according to officials. Footage from a security camera captured the moment the strike hit, causing an explosion and a large plume of smoke to rise from two nine-storey buildings. Residential areas “where ordinary people and children live are being fired at”, said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
At least eight people were killed overnight in a drone attack on Rzhyshchiv in the Kyiv region, regional police chief Andrii Nebytov said. The strike is reported to have hit a dormitory building and a school. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that one of the people who died was “an ambulance driver who came to the call”.
Russia’s foreign ministry has warned that Moscow will not leave “unanswered” a UK plan to supply Ukraine with tank shells made with depleted uranium. “This decision will not remain without serious consequences both for Russian-British bilateral relations and at the international level,” it said on Wednesday. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Britain’s decision took the situation to new and dangerous levels.
The UK foreign secretary has said there is no “nuclear escalation” in the country’s decision to supply Ukraine with shells made with depleted uranium. “They are not nuclear munitions. They are purely conventional munitions,” James Cleverly said, a day after Vladimir Putin accused the west of “beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component”.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said the risk of a nuclear conflict is at its highest level in decades. Russia was committed to keeping the world “safe and free” from the threat of nuclear war, he said, but added later that business could not continue as usual, given that Moscow was now “in a de facto state of open conflict” with Washington.
Rebuilding Ukraine’s economy is now expected to cost $411bn, 2.6 times Ukraine’s expected 2022 gross domestic product, a new study by the World Bank, United Nations, European Commission and Ukraine found.
Sweden’s parliament has formally approved a bill to allow the country to join Nato. Sweden and its neighbour Finland applied to join Nato in May 2022, abandoning decades of non-alignment after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The process has been held up by Turkey, which along with Hungary has yet to ratify the memberships.
Zelenskiy made a surprise visit on Wednesday to Ukrainian troops near the frontline city of Bakhmut. During his visit, the president heard “reports on the operational situation and the course of hostilities on the frontline”, a statement from his office said. Zelenskiy, dressed in a dark sweatshirt and military khaki trousers, was seen handing out medals to soldiers he said were heroically defending their country’s sovereignty.
There is a possibility that the Russian assault on the town of Bakhmut is losing the limited momentum it had obtained, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. This could be happening because “some Russian MoD units have been reallocated to other sectors”, it said.
The Prince of Wales travelled to Warsaw as part of a surprise two-day trip to Poland to thank British and Polish troops for their efforts supporting Ukraine, as well as to learn more about how the country has cared for displaced Ukrainian refugees.
