Zelenskyy, Putin signal support for international inspection of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: live updates
Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin have signaled support for international inspectors to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after both nations claimed the other attacked it, striking fears of an impending nuclear disaster.
In his nightly address Friday, Zelenskyy said that a delegation of Ukrainian diplomats, United Nation diplomats and the International Atomic Energy Agency are “working out specific details” of a mission to be sent to the power plant.
“With this mission, the restoration of full security at the ZNPP and in Enerhodar can begin,” Zelenskyy said.
The Kremlin said that Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron in their first phone conversation since May that Ukrainian shelling around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “raised the threat of a large-scale catastrophe that could lead to radioactive contamination of large territories.” Putin also agreed to the mission’s deployment, according to statements by the French president’s office and the Kremlin.
Russia and Ukraine are still blaming each other for an attack on the nuclear power plant, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.
Zelenskyy described the fighting at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as “blackmail with radiation” by Russia, during his Friday address.
Ukraine’s state nuclear power company, Energoatom, previously said in a statement that an attack on the plant “created a humanitarian disaster in the city.”
The situation at the nuclear power plant remained largely unchanged on Friday, despite claims by the Russian Ministry of Defense that Ukrainian forces would stage a provocation there Friday, said the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think-tank.
Latest developments:
►Russian forces shelled “critical infrastructure facilities” Saturday morning in the Kharkiv city and region, the head of Kharkiv’s regional state administration, Oleg Synegubov, wrote on Telegram Saturday. There were no casualties.
►Russian forces stepped up their battle to seize one of the dwindling number of cities in embattled eastern Ukraine not already under their control while continuing to fire on towns and villages in the country’s north and south, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.
Ukraine hospitals struggle to operate in war time
US buying big Ukraine grain shipment for hungry regions, UN says
The United States is stepping up to buy about 150,000 metric tons of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by war, the World Food Program chief told The Associated Press.
The final destinations for the grain are not confirmed and discussions continue, David Beasley said. But the planned shipment, one of several the U.N. agency is pursuing, is more than six times the amount of grain carried by the first ship the World Food Program arranged to travel from Ukraine to people in Africa at risk of starvation.
The Horn of Africa region’s bone-dry communities face yet another failed rainy season within weeks that could tip parts of the region, especially neighboring Somalia, into famine. Already, thousands of people have died. The World Food Program says 22 million people are hungry.
Contributing: Associated Press