Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant safety ‘deteriorating’ after drone strike – Ukraine latest

Ukraine is reaping “huge political gains” from its military offensive into western Russia but the incursion is not altering the “anti-escalation approach” of the West, Poland’s interior minister has said.

Asked whether Kyiv’s military gains could change its allies’ stance on the use of arms they supply for its war with Russia, Tomasz Siemoniak told Reuters: “This offensive does not change the anti-escalation attitude of the West.”

He added: “I think that for Western countries this is an event in terms of changing the image of Ukraine – Kyiv’s political gains are huge after less than two weeks.”

The US so far deems Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk region a protective move appropriate for Kyiv to use US equipment, officials in Washington said this week, but they expressed worries about potential complications as Ukrainian troops push further into enemy territory.

Warsaw has been one of the staunchest allies of Ukraine and Polish premier Donald Tusk struck a similar tone to Washington earlier this week, saying Ukraine had full right to carry out its war response in a way that would effectively paralyse Russia.

Fighters in Chechnya have turned a Tesla Cybertruck into a fighting vehicle, and are thanking Elon Musk for creating it.

On Saturday, Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the fighting forces in Russia’ Chechnya region, posted a video of himself on a Cybertruck with a machine gun mounted to the vehicle. In the video he said he planned to send the vehicle to fight in the Russian-Ukraine war.

“The Cybertruck will soon be sent to the SVO zone, where it will be in demand under the appropriate conditions. I am confident that this ‘beast’ will greatly benefit our soldiers,” he wrote in a Telegram post. The “SVO zone” refers to the Ukraine warzone.

Kadyrov praised the vehicle — and Musk — in the Telegram post, according to Reuters.

Our US reporter Graig Graziosi reports:

The UK “should be proud” of British weapons being used by Ukraine, despite the country’s incursion into Russia, defence secretary John Healey has said.

Writing in the Sunday Express, Mr Healey said: “The bold incursion by Ukrainian troops into Russia in recent days – to defend against further Russian strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities – has exposed vulnerabilities in Russia’s military and put Putin under pressure.

“Let me be very clear: under Article 51 of the UN Charter, Ukraine has a clear right of self-defence against Russia’s illegal attacks. Providing international law is followed, that does not rule out operations inside Russia.”

He added: “We should be proud of Britain’s support for Ukraine’s struggle. We should be proud that British-donated equipment, in the hands of brave Ukrainians on the front line, is helping them to defend their country and push back Putin.”

The drone which struck close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant hit the road between the two main gates of the plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

The nuclear facility – Europe’s largest – has been shut down by the Russian troops who seized it in March 2022, but requires external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.

The drone hit the road between the two main gates of the plant, landing close to the essential cooling water sprinkler ponds and around 100 metres from the Dniprovska power line, the only remaining 750 kilovolt line providing a power supply to the plant, the IAEA said.

The IAEA immediately visited the area and reported that the damage seemed to have been caused by a drone equipped with an explosive payload. There were no casualties and no impact on any power plant equipment. However, there was impact to the road between the two main gates of the plant.

Military activity in the area – including very close to the plant – has been intense for the last week, according to the watchdog, whose team has heard frequent explosions, repetitive heavy machine gun and rifle fire and artillery at various distances from the plant.

A significant fire at one of the plant’s cooling towers earlier this week resulted in considerable damage, although there was no immediate threat to nuclear safety, the IAEA said.

Here are the comments in full from International Atomic Energy Association chief Rafael Grossi, after a drone struck the road outside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant:

“Yet again we see an escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides and for strict observance of the five concrete principles established for the protection of the plant.

“Nuclear power plants are designed to be resilient against technical or human failures and external events including extreme ones, but they are not built to withstand a direct military attack, and neither are they supposed to, just as with any other energy facility in the world.

“This latest attack highlights the vulnerability of such facilities in conflict zones and the need to continue monitoring the fragile situation.”

Safety at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit the road around the perimeter of Europe’s largest such facility on Saturday, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has warned.

The warning from International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi came after the Russian management of the plant claimed a Ukrainian drone dropped an explosive charge on a road outside, endangering its staff who use the highway, the Tass state news agency reported.

Moscow seized the nuclear plant in the early days of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It has been shut down by Russian troops but needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.

Russia has opened a criminal court case against two Italian journalists over a TV report from Kursk, state news agency Tass reports, citing the FSB security service.

A four-person from with Italy’s state broadcaster RAI, working under Ukrainian military escort, produced the first foreign media report from the war-damaged Russian town of Sudzha, taken last week during Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Italy’s ambassador on Friday over what it called illegal border crossing by a RAI crew, and the two reporters are scheduled to fly back to the northern Italian city of Milan on Sunday following a decision by RAI that they should do so.

“The company decided to make journalist Stefania Battistini and cameraman Simone Traini return temporarily to Italy, solely to ensure personal safety and security,” RAI said.

RAI union Usigrai and Italy’s national press union FNSI said in a joint statement: “Journalism is not a crime. The Moscow authorities’ possibility of putting Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini on trial is unacceptable. Reporting is not done with prior authorisations.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his calls for Ukraine’s Western allies to allow their weaponry to be used for long-range strikes on Russia.

“The long-range capability for our forces is the answer to all most important, most strategic questions of this war,” Mr Zelensky said in his daily video address to the nation.

“We will strengthen our diplomatic work. We will insist that bold steps and bold decisions are needed.”

Images gathered by the UK military’s first satellite will be shared with allies, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said – pointing to the war in Ukraine as having shown that the use of space is “crucial” to military operations.

The satellite, named Tyche, is the first to be fully owned by the MoD, and was launched on Friday from a rocket owned by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Comparable in size to a washing machine, Tyche was designed and built in the UK through a £22m contract with Surrey Satellites Technology Limited (SSTL).

SSTL received the first signals from Tyche a few hours after lift-off that confirmed the successful launch from Vandenberg space force base, California, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter 11 mission.

Along with military information, it is intended that data from the satellite will be accessible by other UK Government departments for uses including environmental disaster monitoring, mapping information development and tracking the impact of climate change globally, according to the MoD

Over a five-year life span, the 150kg satellite will provide imagery to support the UK armed forces and is the first to be launched by the MoD out of a constellation of satellites under its space-based Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) programme.

Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova has initiated a conversation about prisoner of war exchanges, Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has been cited as saying by the Institute for the Study of War think-tank.

The US-based group cited Mr Lubinets as saying Ukraine had taken some 2,000 Russia personnel prisoner in Kursk over the past 11 days, including conscripts, border guards from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), and personnel from Chechen “Akhmat” units.