Ukraine accused Russia of firing rockets from around a captured nuclear power plant, killing at least 13 people and wounding 10, in the knowledge it would be risky for Ukraine to return fire.
The town Ukraine says Russia targeted – Marhanets – is one Moscow says its foes have used in the past to shell Russian soldiers at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which they seized in March.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday said Ukrainian forces would respond to the shelling of Marhanets. Ukraine’s military said Russia also bombarded several other areas in the Zaporizhzhia region, including the coal-mining town of Vuhledar.
The mayor of Nikopol, a Ukrainian-held town near Marhanets across the Dnipro River from the nuclear plant, said on Telegram that Russian shelling had hit a community nearby almost nightly for the past week.
Calling on foreign allies to send more powerful weapons, Zelenskyy said in a late-night video address that Kyiv “will not leave today’s Russian shelling of the Dnipropetrovsk region unanswered.”
Ukrainians and the country’s allies must think about “how to inflict the greatest possible losses on the occupiers in order to shorten the war,” he said.
After the United Nations atomic energy watchdog sounded the alarm over a potential nuclear disaster, the Group of Seven leading industrialised countries on Wednesday told Russia to hand back the plant to Ukraine.
There were no indications that their demand will sway Moscow, which on Wednesday received a powerful endorsement from China of its rationale for the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Beijing’s ambassador to Moscow, Zhang Hanhui, accused Washington of backing Russia into a corner with repeated expansions of the western-led NATO military alliance and support for Ukraine’s alignment with the European Union.
Washington’s “ultimate goal is to exhaust and crush Russia with a protracted war and the cudgel of sanctions,” Zhang was quoted as saying.
Beijing is also involved in a standoff with the United States over Taiwan. Since the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China has been conducting extensive military drills around the self-ruled island it claims as its own.
NEW RUSSIAN GROUND FORCE?
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said Russia was launching attacks with impunity from Zaporizhzhia, knowing it was risky for Ukraine to fight back.
“The cowardly Russians can’t do anything more so they strike towns ignobly hiding at the Zaporizhzhia atomic power station,” he said on social media on Wednesday.
Ukraine says around 500 Russian troops with heavy vehicles and weapons are at the plant, where Ukrainian technicians continue to work.
Ukraine’s state nuclear power firm has warned that containers with radioactive material might be shelled and said it is vital Kyiv retake the plant by winter. It accuses Russia of wanting to connect the facility to its power grid.
BOOST FOR ECONOMY
The war has crushed Ukraine’s economy, but there was some relief on Wednesday when overseas creditors backed Kyiv’s request for a two-year freeze on payments on almost $20 billion in international bonds. That should avert a messy default.
As Kyiv hailed the move as a sign of solidarity by private investors abroad, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the deal would save his country almost $6 billion.
“These funds will help us maintain macrofinancial stability, strengthen the sustainability of the Ukrainian economy and improve the power of our army,” he said.
