Un turning into war? Ukraine announced on Sunday (September 11) that its troops had recaptured more than 3,000 square kilometers of territory in September from Russian forces during a counter-offensive in the northeast of the country.
“Since the beginning of September, more than 3,000 square kilometers have returned to Ukrainian control,” Valeri Zalouzhny, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, said in a statement. “Around Kharkiv, we started to advance not only south and east but also north. We are 50 kilometers from the border,” he said.
Ukraine also announced on Sunday, September 11 the shutdown of the sixth and last reactor in operation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe and occupied by Russian forces. “Today, September 11, 2022, during the night at 3:41 a.m. unit number 6 of the (power plant) was disconnected from the electricity grid,” according to a press release from the Ukrainian operator Energoatom. “Preparations are underway for its cooling,” adds the operator.
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A demilitarized zone around the hoped-for power plant
According to Energoatom, a cold shutdown is “the safest state” for the reactor, which for three days had been the only one to produce the electricity needed to cool the nuclear fuel and to ensure the safety of the site. The decision to shut it down was taken when the site’s external power supply was restored “last night” with one of the transmission lines.
“In the event of further damage to the transmission lines connecting the site to the electrical system, the risk of which remains high, the internal needs (of the site) will have to be provided by generators running on diesel,” warns Energoatom. In its press release, Energoatom reiterates its call for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the plant, the only way according to the operator to ensure its security.
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Ukrainians cross the border with Russia
“Thousands” of people fled the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, the scene of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, towards Russia in 24 hours, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, said on Sunday. “It wasn’t the easiest night, it wasn’t the easiest morning. Over the past 24 hours, thousands of people have crossed the border,” Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a video address, posted on his Telegram channel.
Most of the people who crossed the border in the Belgorod region went to settle with their relatives residing in Russia, according to the governor. “Today, 1,342 people are in 27 temporary accommodation places set up in the region,” he said. “In total, the situation is under control,” assured Vyacheslav Gladkov, assuring that, on Sunday afternoon, there were no longer long queues at the border, unlike the previous night.
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The strategic city of Izioum “liberated”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday evening that his army had recaptured the strategic town of Izium in eastern Ukraine from Russian forces, where kyiv is waging a counter-offensive that has broken through Russian lines. In his daily address on the 200th day of the conflict, the Ukrainian president thanked the soldiers who “liberated hundreds of our towns and villages (…) the most recent of which are Balakliïa, Izium and Kupiansk.
Maps that question
The map of the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, presented Sunday by the Russian Ministry of Defense during its daily briefing, showed a major withdrawal of the Russian army from this region, the scene of a vast Ukrainian counter-offensive. According to this map presented in the briefing video, released by the ministry, the Russian army only controlled a small part of the territory in the east of the Kharkiv region, behind the Oskol river, on Sunday.
During the previous briefing on Saturday, the map used by the ministry showed that the Russian army was at that time occupying much larger territories in this region where the kyiv regime has announced in the past two days significant territorial gains against to Russian forces.
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