DIRECT. War in Ukraine: mines near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

2023-07-25 11:32:12

11:20

Explosions heard in Crimea

According to Russian media, two Ukrainian missiles hit a concentration of armored vehicles, equipment and ammunition in the village of Krasnaya Polyana.

11:14

Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption has just added Emirates Chairman Tim Clark to its list of war sponsors

Currently, the airline Emirates continues to serve the two Russian airports of Moscow Domodedovo and St. Petersburg.

10:49

Counterfeit vodka sales skyrocket in Russia

Sales of counterfeit vodka have exploded in Russia, according to Russian media. This is due to Western sanctions and declining revenues. For these media, sales of cognac and brandy in the first six months fell by 20.3% and vodka by 16.4%. According to the authorities, these cheaper counterfeit products are “often made from poor quality materials or even substitutes” and are dangerous to health.

10:22

Russia says it repelled a drone attack on one of its ships in the Black Sea

Russia says it repelled drone attack on Black Sea Fleet patrol boat. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have destroyed two marine drones. “Tonight, the Ukrainian Armed Forces unsuccessfully attempted to attack the patrol vessel Sergey Kotov of the Black Sea Fleet, which performs navigation control tasks in the southwestern part of the Black Sea.” These drones were destroyed at a distance of 1000 m and 800 m from the boat.

10:18

Russian defense minister in North Korea this week, Pyongyang says

Sergei Shoigu will travel to North Korea on Thursday for the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice (1950-1953), North Korean state media announced. “A military delegation from the Russian Federation led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will pay a congratulatory visit to the DPRK,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported, a day after confirming that a Chinese delegation would also attend the event.

10:17

Hot shutdown of a power unit at the Zaporizhia power plant

The Russians occupying the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant have put the power unit 4 in a state of hot shutdown. According to Energoatom, the Ukrainian operator, this is a “flagrant” violation of the requirements of the license to operate this nuclear installation. Energoatom recalls that after the explosion by Russia of the Kakhovka dam on June 6 and the effective disappearance of the Kakhovka reservoir that there are real risks of an insufficient supply of cooling water for the plant. According to Energoatom, this shutdown poses an “undeniable risk to nuclear and radiation safety due to the long downtime of the power unit equipment” and the lack of proper routine maintenance and repair of the equipment. The President of Energoatom appealed to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, stressing the need to call on the IAEA to take action.

10:02

Ukrainian reconnaissance drone put into production

The Ukrainian Sirko drone, developed by Kharkiv engineers, has just been put into production. This drone is able to find an enemy position at a distance of 65 km and return. The device is capable of transmitting streaming video at a distance of 25 km from the operator.

09:29

Nearly 500 children killed since the start of the conflict

According to the prosecutor’s office in Ukraine, 497 children were killed and more than 1,077 injured. Most of them were affected in the Donetsk region, Kharkiv and kyiv. Yesterday a 10-year-old boy died and four children aged 5 to 12 were injured following an enemy attack on the town of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region.

09:09

Air raid alert issued in the east of the country

09:08

Lithuania adopts three-year military support plan for Ukraine

The Lithuanian State Defense Council has approved a military aid plan for Ukraine for the period 2024-2026 worth $220 million, the Lithuanian Defense Ministry has confirmed.

09:03

The United States will announce an aid of 400 million dollars

The United States will announce a new military aid program for Ukraine in the amount of $400 million. This package includes more Patriot/NASAMS air defense missiles, guided artillery, explosives for mine clearance and approximately 30 Stryker vehicles.

09:01

Three priority fronts in the Ukrainian counter-offensive

According to the American Institute of War, Ukrainian forces are continuing their counter-offensive operations in at least 3 directions. They gradually advanced on the southern flank of Bakhmout and in Berdiansk (western border area of Donetsk-eastern Zaporizhia Oblast) as well as in Melitopol (western directions of Zaporizhia region).

08:57

Worrying medical situation in Luhansk

The medical situation in the Luhansk region close to the front line is considered worrying. According to Artem Lysogor, the head of the Regional Medical Association, the medical infrastructure does not have electricity, nor the water supply and the supply of medicines is difficult. According to him, there are still many pensioners in the occupied territories who cannot receive emergency medical care.

08:24

Wheat prices are on the rise again

After the attack on Ukrainian ports which raised fears of blockages on grain exports, the price of American winter wheat of the SRW variety (soft red winter wheat) (which serves as a reference) for delivery in September, rose 8.60%, to 7.5750 dollars a bushel (about 27 kg) at its highest in five months. On the European market, common wheat of the same maturity has gained 7.07%, to 264.75 euros per tonne.

08:20

Putin wants to show his agreement with his African partners

Vladimir Putin welcomes from Thursday his African partners in Saint Petersburg for a Russia-Africa summit. A way to display an agreement despite the conflict in Ukraine and the end of the grain agreement, a source of concern for the continent. Currently, Putin can count on the support of many African countries.

“Today, the constructive, confident and forward-looking partnership between Russia and Africa is particularly significant and important,” Putin said in an article published Monday on the Kremlin website.

Several African heads of state are expected, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, for the second edition of this summit after a first in 2019 in Sochi, on the Black Sea. On the program, the hot topic of the moment: the abandonment by Moscow of a crucial agreement which has allowed Ukraine since the summer of 2022 to export, including to Africa, its cereals by the Black Sea, despite the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports. In recent days, Moscow has tried to reassure its African partners by assuring that Russia was ready to export its cereals for free to the African countries that need it most.

08:13

Ukrainian counteroffensive goes as planned despite delays

In an interview with CNN, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Rezniko admitted that Kiev’s counteroffensive was overdue, but insisted he was “not worried” it was going as planned, adding that it was a “misconception that every counteroffensive should be quick”. He listed a few reasons why the counter-offensive might be slower than expected. “It’s a question of air defence. We also have a very long battlefield line, as well as a large amount of enemies. So it’s war, it’s not a computer game. Our generals, our commanders see the real situation on the battlefield. And again I have to repeat that the main value for us is the lives of our soldiers,” Reznikov said. He added that the situation on Ukraine’s southern front had been slowed down largely due to minefields.

08:04

US, Romania discuss food security after attacks on Ukrainian ports

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Romanian Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu about grain exports and Black Sea security following attacks on Ukrainian ports. “We affirmed our strong partnership and discussed shared support for Ukraine and global food security,” Blinken said. For his part Odobescu considered that the objective of the call was to strengthen “the strategic partnership” between the United States and Romania and to “support the export capacity of Ukrainian cereals”.

07:52

Volodymyr Zelensky considers a possible extension of restrictions in the EU “unacceptable”

The Ukrainian president deemed “unacceptable” the possibility of an extension of restrictions on the export of Ukrainian cereals within the European Union (EU), as demanded by five neighboring countries of Ukraine in order to protect their farmers. “Any extension of the restrictions is absolutely unacceptable and frankly anti-European. Europe has the institutional capacity to act more rationally rather than closing the border to a particular commodity,” Zelensky said in his latest daily video message.

07:49

Belarus says it discussed border “threats” with Wagner

The authorities of Belarus said they had discussed the “threats and challenges” at the borders of their country bordering Ukraine and Poland with the paramilitary group Wagner which settled there after its abortive rebellion in Russia. Belarusian Interior Minister Ivan Kubrakov met with Wagner commanders at a training center and worked out with them “a clear plan of action” for the training of Minsk forces by Russian paramilitaries. “Given the difficult situation near the borders of the republic, it is particularly important to be ready to respond to possible challenges and threats,” he added.

07:47

Mines near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has seen “a few mines” antipersonnel in a buffer zone of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhya, occupied by Russian forces, she announced. According to the agency, these mines do not pose a danger to the security of the installations. These explosive charges, observed “during an inspection on July 23”, are “between the barriers of the interior and exterior perimeters of the site”. It is a restricted area prohibited to personnel in charge of the operation of the plant, she added. The IAEA has not communicated the exact number of mines seen by its inspectors. “The presence of such explosives on the site does not comply with IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidelines,” however continues the IAEA. In addition, the inspectors still do not have access to the roof of the power plant, even though they have been asking for it since the start of their inspection on the site.

07:45

New drone attack on kyiv

During the night, an air alert was triggered in the kyiv region and residents were asked to stay under cover. “All air targets were detected and destroyed” during their approach to kyiv, said Serhi Popko, head of the local military administration, on Telegram. And to add: “This is already the sixth drone attack on the capital this month”. According to the Ukrainian military authorities, this attack has caused no casualties or destruction at this stage.