Ukraine issues Evacuation Order for Nearby Nuclear Plant
To avoid a disaster, Ukraine may shut down the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Wednesday, and residents around the facility were urged to leave for their own safety.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian government urged residents nearby the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility to flee to their safety. In a message on the Telegram messaging service, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk requested residents adjacent to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power facility to evacuate. Enerhodar, the main town serving the plant, is under fire from Russian forces, and its electrical supplies are down, the exiled Ukrainian mayor said on Telegram.
For weeks, the two sides have accused each other of shelling the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, risking an even bigger catastrophe than the 1986 disaster at Ukraine’s Chornobyl plant. Moreover, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said the continuing attacks on the Zaporizhzhia facility are “unacceptable,” and he encouraged the creation of a demilitarized zone. In the past week, Grossi and a team of inspectors from the IAEA visited the nuclear plant.
During a video briefing to the U.N. Security Council, Grossi warned that something catastrophic could occur. As a result, the report recommends establishing a nuclear safety and security zone around the plant and the perimeter. However, neither Russia nor Ukraine immediately accepted the Grossi proposal because they demanded more information.
Officials Distributed Iodine Pills
According to Ukrainian Regional Governor Valentyn Reznichenko, Russian rockets and heavy artillery struck Nikopol, which lies east of the nuclear plant on the Dnieper River. We must prepare the local population for the consequences of atomic dangers because there are fires, blackouts, and many other things at the plant,” Reznichenko said. To help residents protect themselves from radiation leaks, officials have been distributing iodine pills in recent days.
Ukraine issues Evacuation Order for Nearby Nuclear Plant Source: Web
In addition to heavy fighting in the north, near Kharkiv, there was also heavy fighting in the east, in the Donbas industrial region, as well as in the south, near Kherson, where Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive to regain lands the Russians took in the war’s early stages. Russian Leader Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that his country’s military operation in Ukraine did not result in any losses and strengthened its sovereignty.
The Russian president said that all Russian actions aimed to aid the people of the Donbas. However, he said it would ultimately strengthen Russia from inside and in its foreign policy.” Having abandoned an attempt to reach Kyiv, Russia has turned its attention to the Donbas area, where pro-Russian forces have been fighting Ukrainian troops since 2014. He also criticized a deal between the U.N. and Turkey, which restarted Ukrainian grain shipments amid an international food crisis, stating that the exports would not reach the world’s poorest nations.
About 100 ships have left Ukrainian ports with more than 2.2 million tons of grain and other foodstuffs, according to the Joint Coordination Center overseeing the deal. Some countries visited include Italy, China, Turkey, Djibouti, Iran, Romania, Germany, and Lebanon. According to Reuters, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Russian comments about the deal were “surprising” and “baseless.”
