Putin: Russia annexed Ukraine’s Nuclear Plant
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Russia is taking ownership of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest.
Putin signed a decree Wednesday ordering the creation of a state company to manage the facility and said all workers now need Russian permission to work there. Russian troops have occupied the plant for months.
Russian-installed authorities of the Kherson region accused Ukrainian forces on Wednesday of carrying out a missile strike on a hotel in the city of Kherson.
Moscow-backed health officials in the region said one person was killed and three more were wounded. Ukrainian officials haven’t commented on the strike.
Putin’s attempt to cement the increasingly precarious gains of Russia’s army come as Ukrainian troops are pressing a counteroffensive to reclaim those very regions.
Ukraine condemned the “illegal” Russian takeover attempt and called on the West to impose sanctions on the Russian state nuclear operator, Rosatom, and for all countries to limit civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia.
Ukraine’s state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said it considers Putin’s decree “worthless” and “absurd.” It said the plant would continue to be operated by Energoatom as part of the Ukrainian energy system.
A Russian-installed official in the Kherson region insisted Wednesday that Ukrainian advances in the region have been halted.
Kirill Stremousov, in comments to the state-run news agency RIA Novosti, said that “as of this morning … there are no movements” by Kyiv’s forces.
Stremousov vowed that “they won’t enter (the city of) Kherson, it is impossible.” He added that the Russian forces in the region were “regrouping” in order to “gather strength and strike (back.)”
Russian President Vladimir Putin says results of the “referendums” that Moscow held in four regions of Ukraine before annexing them are valid despite being described as a sham by the West and Kyiv.
The vote results are “more than convincing, and it is absolutely transparent and not subject to any doubt,” Putin said.
“This is objective data on people’s mood,” the Russian president said at an event dedicated to the Teachers’ Day. He added that he himself was pleasantly “surprised” by the outcome.
The Kremlin held the door open for expanding areas of Ukraine under Russian control following the absorption of four regions it currently holds.
Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “certain territories will be reclaimed, and we will keep consulting residents who would be eager to embrace Russia.”
The move came even as Ukrainian forces were pressing a counteroffensive to reclaim those regions.
Asked about Ukraine taking back some territory in the four regions after their declared annexation, Peskov said Russia would reclaim them.
He wouldn’t say if Moscow planned to organize votes in any more Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials are reporting further strategic losses for Russia within the territories Moscow has illegally annexed following sham referendums.
Russian troops have started to withdraw from a southern Ukrainian city that was annexed along with the Kharson region though it administratively belongs to the neighboring Mykolaiv area, said Mykolaiv governor Vitaliy Kim on Wednesday.
Kim says officials are “seeking to confirm that officers have left Snihurivka, but there are troops still remaining there.” Earlier, a Russia-installed official, Yury Barbashov, admitted Ukrainian troops were advancing toward the city but claimed Russia was still in control.
Snihurivka, a city of 12,000, is a strategic railway hub in the Mykolaiv region. The Russians have seized the city in March and then annexed it together with the neighboring Kherson region.
In the eastern Luhansk region, the governor Serhiy Haidai said Wednesday that Ukrainian forces have retaken several localities in the region, which also is among the four illegally annexed by Moscow.
“The de-occupation of the Luhansk region has begun, we can talk about it officially – several settlements have been liberated from the Russian army and the invaders,” Haidai said in a video statement on Telegram.
The official did not name the recaptured places, but said that the retreating Russian forces “are trying to mine everything as much as possible – roads, buildings, everything around.”
Residents of Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv have expressed anger and dismay that Russia declared annexations of parts of their country.
Sofia Moroz, 20, says she can’t understand how all this is happening.” Moroz adds “it’s strange, there is sovereignty, there is a country.”
“There is a state, borders, ministries,” she said. “I can’t understand why some people decided to change it. Why is it like that? For what?”
Olha Sviatka, 19, from Kyiv, says “it’s not logical and it’s not true.” The land is not Russian, so “they must not touch it.”
A 38-year-old man from Kyiv who identified himself only by his first name, Oleh, says “it’s my land.”
“They, Russians, need to be thrown out,” he says. “All of them.”
Serhiy Lischuk, 26, agrees: “It’s our country and we will defend it, and our rights.”
The head of Ukraine’s nuclear power company says he will take over managing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after its director was first kidnapped and then released by Russian forces who occupy the facility.
Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, said Wednesday he will be running the plant from the capital Kyiv. Ukrainian workers continue to operate the facility, which shut down its last operational reactor last month.
Zaporizhzhia is Europe’s biggest nuclear plant. Fighting close to the complex has sparked fears of leaks or incidents.
Ukrainian officials have released disturbing evidence and images they say are from areas that Ukrainian forces recently have retaken from Russian troops.
Serhiy Bolvinov, who heads the investigative department of the national police in the eastern Kharkiv region, on Wednesday said authorities are investigating an alleged Russian torture chamber in the village of Pisky-Radkivski.
He posted an image showing a box of what appeared to be precious metal teeth and dentures presumably extracted from those held at the site.
Ukraine’s presidential office says that at least five civilians have been killed and eight have been wounded by the latest Russian shelling.
A statement on Wednesday says Russian troops used six Iranian suicide drones to strike the town of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, leaving one person wounded.
The strikes were the first on the town since March when the Russians retreated from the areas near the Ukrainian capital after a failed attempt to capture it.
Russian forces also shelled areas on the western bank of the Dnieper River, facing the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and in the Donetsk region.
In Sviatohirsk, which was reclaimed by Ukrainian forces, a burial ground for civilians was found and bodies of four civilians were discovered, according to Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
The Ukrainian army has recaptured a number of villages in the Kherson region as a part of its massive counteroffensive in the south of the country, the regional military command said.
The Ukrainian flag has been raised above Liubymivka, Khreschenivka, Zolota Balka, Biliaivka, Ukrainka, Velyka and Mala Oleksandrivka villages, Operational Command South said.
The villages are all concentrated on the right bank of the Dnipro river in the northern part of the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says results of the “referendums” that Moscow held in four regions of Ukraine before annexing them are valid despite being described as a sham by the West and Kyiv.
The vote results are “more than convincing, and it is absolutely transparent and not subject to any doubt,” Putin said.
“This is objective data on people’s mood,” the Russian president said at an event dedicated to the Teachers’ Day. He added that he himself was pleasantly “surprised” by the outcome.
Researchers at the U.S.-based intelligence firm Nisos say in a new report that Russia has disguised its own propaganda videos so they can be posted on platforms such as Twitter without revealing their true origin.
The report says the videos falsely claim that Ukraine caused civilian deaths attributed to Russian forces or say residents of areas forcibly annexed by Russia welcome their occupiers.
The reported new tactic is Russia’s latest attempt to circumvent efforts by European governments and tech companies trying to stop Kremlin propaganda and disinformation about the war.
