IAEA calls for safety zone around Ukraine nuclear plant
IAEA officials inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine last Thursday. Photo by IAEA Press Office/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 6 (UPI) -- United Nations inspectors on Tuesday called for the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone around Europe's largest nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, saying it was gravely concerned about the situation.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency went to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant last week, checking critical safety systems and assessing damage at the facility. In their report, they said that shelling should be stopped immediately.
"While the ongoing shelling has not yet triggered a nuclear emergency, it continues to represent a constant threat to nuclear safety and security with potential impact on critical safety functions that may lead to radiological consequences with great safety significance," the report said.
"There is an urgent need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident arising from physical damage caused by military means," the IAEA added. "This can be achieved by the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone."
Ukraine's main energy utility said it deliberately took the plant's final nuclear reactor offline so crews could extinguish a fire that had broken out due to fighting near the facility. It was the second time in two weeks that the plant became entirely disconnected from the main power grid, which forces the plant to use temporary power generators.
The Zaporizhzhia plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine and all of Europe.
Fighting near the facility continued on Tuesday, heightening danger and concern for the plant. Russian forces have controlled the facility, which is located on the banks of the Dnipro River, since they took control of the city of Zaporizhzhia months ago.
Meanwhile, Ukraine kept up its counteroffensive in the south on Tuesday as Russian forces maintained attacks in the east. Russia's military also struck an oil depot in central Ukraine, officials said. State-run Russian media also reported Ukrainian attacks in the southern town of Kakhovka along the Dnipro River.
A Ukrainian policeman inspects debris from a rocket near a recently
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said that the counteroffensive has expanded to the east and southeast.
"Since the beginning of the operation to liberate the south of Ukraine, our military has liberated several settlements on the western bank of the Dnieper," Arestovych said according to The Guardian.
"These are subtle movements on the map. But the beginning of counteroffensive actions on different sectors of the front on our part speaks of a change in the situation as a whole."
Heavy fire and a Russian missile attack were reported Tuesday at an oil depot in Kryvyi Rih. Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration head Valentyn Reznichenko said firefighters and a fire truck responded to the attack.
Despite repeated Russian attacks in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials say there has been no change in territorial control.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that U.S. intelligence said in a newly declassified report that Russia is buying weapons from North Korea due to a shortage of artillery.
Russia has already received drone equipment from Iran, which reflects the difficulty it faces in strengthening supply chains in light of sanctions from the United States and western Europe.
IAEA officials inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine last Thursday. Photo by IAEA Press Office/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 6 (UPI) -- United Nations inspectors on Tuesday called for the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone around Europe's largest nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, saying it was gravely concerned about the situation.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency went to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant last week, checking critical safety systems and assessing damage at the facility. In their report, they said that shelling should be stopped immediately.
"While the ongoing shelling has not yet triggered a nuclear emergency, it continues to represent a constant threat to nuclear safety and security with potential impact on critical safety functions that may lead to radiological consequences with great safety significance," the report said.
"There is an urgent need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident arising from physical damage caused by military means," the IAEA added. "This can be achieved by the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone."
Ukraine's main energy utility said it deliberately took the plant's final nuclear reactor offline so crews could extinguish a fire that had broken out due to fighting near the facility. It was the second time in two weeks that the plant became entirely disconnected from the main power grid, which forces the plant to use temporary power generators.
The Zaporizhzhia plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine and all of Europe.
Fighting near the facility continued on Tuesday, heightening danger and concern for the plant. Russian forces have controlled the facility, which is located on the banks of the Dnipro River, since they took control of the city of Zaporizhzhia months ago.
Meanwhile, Ukraine kept up its counteroffensive in the south on Tuesday as Russian forces maintained attacks in the east. Russia's military also struck an oil depot in central Ukraine, officials said. State-run Russian media also reported Ukrainian attacks in the southern town of Kakhovka along the Dnipro River.
A Ukrainian policeman inspects debris from a rocket near a recently
shelled school in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday.
Photo by Sergey Kozlov/EPA-EFE
Vladimir Leontiev, the Russian-supported head of the local administration, said air defenses shot down most of the Ukrainian missile attacks late Monday and early Tuesday.
Leontiev said that Ukraine's attacks struck road infrastructure and a hydroelectric power station in the area. Ukrainian airstrikes and shelling attacks targeted a nearby Russian-held bridge to disrupt supply lines.
Vladimir Leontiev, the Russian-supported head of the local administration, said air defenses shot down most of the Ukrainian missile attacks late Monday and early Tuesday.
Leontiev said that Ukraine's attacks struck road infrastructure and a hydroelectric power station in the area. Ukrainian airstrikes and shelling attacks targeted a nearby Russian-held bridge to disrupt supply lines.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said that the counteroffensive has expanded to the east and southeast.
"Since the beginning of the operation to liberate the south of Ukraine, our military has liberated several settlements on the western bank of the Dnieper," Arestovych said according to The Guardian.
"These are subtle movements on the map. But the beginning of counteroffensive actions on different sectors of the front on our part speaks of a change in the situation as a whole."
Heavy fire and a Russian missile attack were reported Tuesday at an oil depot in Kryvyi Rih. Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration head Valentyn Reznichenko said firefighters and a fire truck responded to the attack.
Despite repeated Russian attacks in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials say there has been no change in territorial control.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that U.S. intelligence said in a newly declassified report that Russia is buying weapons from North Korea due to a shortage of artillery.
Russia has already received drone equipment from Iran, which reflects the difficulty it faces in strengthening supply chains in light of sanctions from the United States and western Europe.
AFP
Issued on: 07/09/2022 -
Video by: Mark OWEN
For more analysis on IAEA's call for a security zone at Ukraine's frontline nuclear plant, FRANCE 24 is joined by Mariana Budjeryn, Senior Research Associate with the Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center. FRANCE 24's Mark Owen asks our guest if it would be a "logical" solution to put in charge a team of UN peacekeepers at Zaporizhzhia to protect it and designate it neutral territory. While Ms. Budjeryn does believe "that would be a very logical and much-needed solution," she does not see that as a "feasible solution" for the simple reason that Russia will never agree to such a mission. "The problem there is that the authorization for any sort of peacekeeping mission of the UN has to be granted by the UN Security Council on which Russia wields a veto power."
What’s happening with Ukraine’s threatened nuclear plant
By The Associated Press
By The Associated Press
today
A Russian serviceman guards an area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in territory under Russian military control, southeastern Ukraine, May 1, 2022. Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant , built during the Soviet era and one of the 10 biggest in the world, has been engulfed by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in recent weeks, fueling concerns of a nuclear catastrophe.
A Russian serviceman guards an area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in territory under Russian military control, southeastern Ukraine, May 1, 2022. Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant , built during the Soviet era and one of the 10 biggest in the world, has been engulfed by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in recent weeks, fueling concerns of a nuclear catastrophe.
(AP Photo, File)
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, built during the Soviet era and one of the 10 biggest in the world, has been engulfed by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in recent weeks, fueling concerns of a nuclear catastrophe.
Here is a look at the current situation:
WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW
The plant has six reactors, only one of which was operational as of Saturday.
The shelling so far hasn’t damaged the plant’s reactors or spent nuclear fuel storage, but has repeatedly struck some auxiliary equipment.
On Monday, the plant was knocked off Ukraine’s electricity grid after its last transmission line was disconnected because of a fire caused by shelling.
Pending repairs, the plant’s only operational reactor was generating the power the plant needs for its own safety in so-called “island mode.”
Two inspectors from the U.N.’s atomic watchdog have remained at the plant following a visit by a larger team last week.
WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL THREATS
Fighting near the plant has fueled fears of a disaster like the one at Chernobyl, where a reactor exploded and spewed deadly radiation, contaminating a vast area in the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Nuclear experts say while the buildings housing Zaporizhzhia’s reactors are protected by reinforced concrete that could withstand an errant shell or rocket, a disruption in the electrical supply could knock out cooling systems essential for the reactors’ safety. Emergency diesel generators can be unreliable.
“If power is lost in the fog of war, then we are in unchartered territory,” says Paul Dorfman, a nuclear safety expert at the University of Sussex in England.
WHAT IS “ISLAND MODE”
Functioning in “island mode” supplies power for the residual heat removal of the reactor cores and the spent fuel pools.
Experts say it is very unreliable.
Mycle Schneider, an independent policy consultant and coordinator of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, said if the diesel generators fail, a core meltdown could occur within hours.
If the reactor is already turned off, the risk depends on the time since shutdown. The less time has passed, the more cooling is required, said Schneider.
While the pool containing Zaphorizhzha’s spent fuel is located inside the plant’s containment area, a serious reactor accident would likely affect the pool as well.
“Irradiated fuel overheats and catches fire spontaneously if it exposed to air and not cooled anymore,” said Schneider.
___
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, built during the Soviet era and one of the 10 biggest in the world, has been engulfed by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in recent weeks, fueling concerns of a nuclear catastrophe.
Here is a look at the current situation:
WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW
The plant has six reactors, only one of which was operational as of Saturday.
The shelling so far hasn’t damaged the plant’s reactors or spent nuclear fuel storage, but has repeatedly struck some auxiliary equipment.
On Monday, the plant was knocked off Ukraine’s electricity grid after its last transmission line was disconnected because of a fire caused by shelling.
Pending repairs, the plant’s only operational reactor was generating the power the plant needs for its own safety in so-called “island mode.”
Two inspectors from the U.N.’s atomic watchdog have remained at the plant following a visit by a larger team last week.
WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL THREATS
Fighting near the plant has fueled fears of a disaster like the one at Chernobyl, where a reactor exploded and spewed deadly radiation, contaminating a vast area in the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Nuclear experts say while the buildings housing Zaporizhzhia’s reactors are protected by reinforced concrete that could withstand an errant shell or rocket, a disruption in the electrical supply could knock out cooling systems essential for the reactors’ safety. Emergency diesel generators can be unreliable.
“If power is lost in the fog of war, then we are in unchartered territory,” says Paul Dorfman, a nuclear safety expert at the University of Sussex in England.
WHAT IS “ISLAND MODE”
Functioning in “island mode” supplies power for the residual heat removal of the reactor cores and the spent fuel pools.
Experts say it is very unreliable.
Mycle Schneider, an independent policy consultant and coordinator of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, said if the diesel generators fail, a core meltdown could occur within hours.
If the reactor is already turned off, the risk depends on the time since shutdown. The less time has passed, the more cooling is required, said Schneider.
While the pool containing Zaphorizhzha’s spent fuel is located inside the plant’s containment area, a serious reactor accident would likely affect the pool as well.
“Irradiated fuel overheats and catches fire spontaneously if it exposed to air and not cooled anymore,” said Schneider.
___
UN agency calls for safety zone around Ukraine nuclear plant
By HANNA ARHIROVA
Shelling continued around the plant on Tuesday, a day after it was again knocked off Ukraine’s electrical grid and put in the precarious position of relying on its own power to run its safety systems.
Normally the plant relies on power from the outside to run the critical cooling systems that keep its reactors and its spent fuel from overheating. A loss of those systems could lead to a meltdown or other release of radiation.
“For radiation protection professionals, for the Ukrainian and even the Russian people, and those of central Europe, this is a very worrying time — and that’s an understatement,” said Paul Dorfman, a nuclear safety expert at the University of Sussex in England.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling Enerhodar, the city where the plant is situated. The Ukrainians also charged that the Kremlin’s forces fired on a town across the Dnieper River from the power station.
The Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, reported a powerful blast in the city around midday. The explosion left the city of 53,000 cut off from its power and water supplies. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the blast.
World leaders have called for the demilitarization of the plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the war but is being run by Ukrainian engineers.
In its report, the IAEA did not assign blame for the shelling at the plant. The agency has sought to keep out of the political fray.
It did note that on several occasions, the plant lost, fully or in part, its off-site power supply because of military activity in the area. The U.N. agency said a backup power supply line should be reestablished and asked that “all military activities that may affect the power supply systems end.”
In addition, the IAEA warned that the Ukrainian staff operating the plant under Russian military occupation is “under constant high stress and pressure, especially with the limited staff available” — a situation that could “lead to increased human error with implications for nuclear safety.”
It recommended that “an appropriate work environment, including family support,” be reestablished.
The IAEA also said the staff is not being given unrestricted access to some parts of the plant and must get permission from the Russian occupying forces to reach the cooling ponds where spent fuel is kept. Grossi expressed concern that that could hamper the staff’s response in an emergency.
The report said the team saw Russian military personnel, vehicles and equipment at various locations, including several military trucks on the floor of two turbine halls. It called for “the removal of vehicles from areas that could interfere with the operation of safety and security systems and equipment.”
Two inspectors from the IAEA mission remained at the plant, a decision welcomed by Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.
“There are Russian troops now who don’t understand what’s happening, don’t assess the risks correctly,” Podolyak said. “There is a number of our workers there, who need some kind of protection, people from the international community standing by their side and telling (Russian troops): ‘Don’t touch these people, let them work.’”
On Monday, the IAEA said Ukrainian authorities reported that the plant’s last transmission line linking it to the nation’s power grid was disconnected to allow workers to put out a fire caused by shelling.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told Ukrainian television: “Any repairs are impossible at this point — there are ongoing hostilities around the plant.”
In the meantime, the plant’s only remaining operational reactor will “generate the power the plant needs for its safety and other functions,” the IAEA said.
Mycle Schneider, an independent analyst in Canada on nuclear energy, said that means the plant was probably functioning in “island mode,” or producing electricity for its own operations.
“Island mode is a very shaky, unstable and unreliable way to provide continuous power supply to a nuclear plant,” Schneider said. He said that “many if not most islanding attempts fail.”
The Zaporizhzhia plant has diesel emergency backup generators to produce power to run the place if the outside source is disrupted. But Schneider said the plant’s operators may have decided to go into island mode first.
If the plant turns to the diesel generators as a last resort and they fail, the reactor and the spent fuel could rapidly overheat, he said.
Experts say the reactors at Zaporizhzhia are designed to withstand natural disasters and even plane crashes, but the unpredictable fighting has repeatedly threatened the cooling systems. Ukraine in 1986 was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, the explosion at Chernobyl.
Ukrainian intelligence reported that residents of Enerhodar were fleeing the city out of fear. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russia should organize safe corridors for women and children living nearby.
“People en masse are reaching out to us for help. They are trying to leave the dangerous territory, but there are no corridors,” Vereshchuk told Ukrainian TV.
Meanwhile, gunfire and explosions were heard Tuesday afternoon in the Russian-occupied city of Berdyansk in southastern Ukraine, with Russia’s state-run media reporting that the car of the Kremlin-installed “city commandant” had been blown up. The RIA Novosti news agency said that the official, Artem Bardin, was in serious condition and that a shootout followed the assassination attempt.
The agency quoted Russian-backed local officials as saying they had launched a manhunt for the “Ukrainian saboteurs” responsible.
___
Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
By HANNA ARHIROVA
yesterday
1 of 10
1 of 10
A Ukrainian soldier fires on the front line in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Sat. Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Kostiantyn Liberov)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The U.N. atomic watchdog agency urged Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday to establish a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the Zaporizhzhia power plant amid mounting fears the fighting could trigger a catastrophe in a country still scarred by the Chernobyl disaster.
“We are playing with fire, and something very, very catastrophic could take place,” Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned the U.N. Security Council, days after leading an inspection visit to the plant.
In a detailed report on its visit, the IAEA said shelling around the Europe’s largest nuclear power plant should stop immediately. “This requires agreement by all relevant parties to the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the plant, it said.
At the Security Council meeting, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres likewise demanded that Russian and Ukrainian forces commit to halting all military activity around the plant and agree on a “demilitarized perimeter.”
Guterres said this would include “a commitment by Russian forces to withdraw all military personnel and equipment from that perimeter and a commitment by Ukrainian forces not to move into it.”
Asked by reporters about establishing a demilitarized zone, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the proposal “is not serious.”
“The Ukrainians will immediately step in and ruin the whole thing. We’re defending, we’re protecting the station,” he said. “In fact, it is not militarized. There is no equipment at the station.”
Speaking to journalists later, Nebenizia said Russia wanted to see details of the proposals for demilitarized and protection zones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country needs to look at the specifics of the protection-zone proposal and could support the measure if it envisions the demilitarization of the plant.
In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy praised the IAEA report’s “clear references” to the presence of Russian troops and military equipment at the plant. He urged the agency to explicitly back Kyiv’s long-held position that Russian forces need to withdraw from the facility and its surroundings.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The U.N. atomic watchdog agency urged Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday to establish a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the Zaporizhzhia power plant amid mounting fears the fighting could trigger a catastrophe in a country still scarred by the Chernobyl disaster.
“We are playing with fire, and something very, very catastrophic could take place,” Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned the U.N. Security Council, days after leading an inspection visit to the plant.
In a detailed report on its visit, the IAEA said shelling around the Europe’s largest nuclear power plant should stop immediately. “This requires agreement by all relevant parties to the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the plant, it said.
At the Security Council meeting, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres likewise demanded that Russian and Ukrainian forces commit to halting all military activity around the plant and agree on a “demilitarized perimeter.”
Guterres said this would include “a commitment by Russian forces to withdraw all military personnel and equipment from that perimeter and a commitment by Ukrainian forces not to move into it.”
Asked by reporters about establishing a demilitarized zone, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the proposal “is not serious.”
“The Ukrainians will immediately step in and ruin the whole thing. We’re defending, we’re protecting the station,” he said. “In fact, it is not militarized. There is no equipment at the station.”
Speaking to journalists later, Nebenizia said Russia wanted to see details of the proposals for demilitarized and protection zones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country needs to look at the specifics of the protection-zone proposal and could support the measure if it envisions the demilitarization of the plant.
In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy praised the IAEA report’s “clear references” to the presence of Russian troops and military equipment at the plant. He urged the agency to explicitly back Kyiv’s long-held position that Russian forces need to withdraw from the facility and its surroundings.
Shelling continued around the plant on Tuesday, a day after it was again knocked off Ukraine’s electrical grid and put in the precarious position of relying on its own power to run its safety systems.
Normally the plant relies on power from the outside to run the critical cooling systems that keep its reactors and its spent fuel from overheating. A loss of those systems could lead to a meltdown or other release of radiation.
“For radiation protection professionals, for the Ukrainian and even the Russian people, and those of central Europe, this is a very worrying time — and that’s an understatement,” said Paul Dorfman, a nuclear safety expert at the University of Sussex in England.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling Enerhodar, the city where the plant is situated. The Ukrainians also charged that the Kremlin’s forces fired on a town across the Dnieper River from the power station.
The Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, reported a powerful blast in the city around midday. The explosion left the city of 53,000 cut off from its power and water supplies. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the blast.
World leaders have called for the demilitarization of the plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the war but is being run by Ukrainian engineers.
In its report, the IAEA did not assign blame for the shelling at the plant. The agency has sought to keep out of the political fray.
It did note that on several occasions, the plant lost, fully or in part, its off-site power supply because of military activity in the area. The U.N. agency said a backup power supply line should be reestablished and asked that “all military activities that may affect the power supply systems end.”
In addition, the IAEA warned that the Ukrainian staff operating the plant under Russian military occupation is “under constant high stress and pressure, especially with the limited staff available” — a situation that could “lead to increased human error with implications for nuclear safety.”
It recommended that “an appropriate work environment, including family support,” be reestablished.
The IAEA also said the staff is not being given unrestricted access to some parts of the plant and must get permission from the Russian occupying forces to reach the cooling ponds where spent fuel is kept. Grossi expressed concern that that could hamper the staff’s response in an emergency.
The report said the team saw Russian military personnel, vehicles and equipment at various locations, including several military trucks on the floor of two turbine halls. It called for “the removal of vehicles from areas that could interfere with the operation of safety and security systems and equipment.”
Two inspectors from the IAEA mission remained at the plant, a decision welcomed by Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.
“There are Russian troops now who don’t understand what’s happening, don’t assess the risks correctly,” Podolyak said. “There is a number of our workers there, who need some kind of protection, people from the international community standing by their side and telling (Russian troops): ‘Don’t touch these people, let them work.’”
On Monday, the IAEA said Ukrainian authorities reported that the plant’s last transmission line linking it to the nation’s power grid was disconnected to allow workers to put out a fire caused by shelling.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told Ukrainian television: “Any repairs are impossible at this point — there are ongoing hostilities around the plant.”
In the meantime, the plant’s only remaining operational reactor will “generate the power the plant needs for its safety and other functions,” the IAEA said.
Mycle Schneider, an independent analyst in Canada on nuclear energy, said that means the plant was probably functioning in “island mode,” or producing electricity for its own operations.
“Island mode is a very shaky, unstable and unreliable way to provide continuous power supply to a nuclear plant,” Schneider said. He said that “many if not most islanding attempts fail.”
The Zaporizhzhia plant has diesel emergency backup generators to produce power to run the place if the outside source is disrupted. But Schneider said the plant’s operators may have decided to go into island mode first.
If the plant turns to the diesel generators as a last resort and they fail, the reactor and the spent fuel could rapidly overheat, he said.
Experts say the reactors at Zaporizhzhia are designed to withstand natural disasters and even plane crashes, but the unpredictable fighting has repeatedly threatened the cooling systems. Ukraine in 1986 was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, the explosion at Chernobyl.
Ukrainian intelligence reported that residents of Enerhodar were fleeing the city out of fear. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russia should organize safe corridors for women and children living nearby.
“People en masse are reaching out to us for help. They are trying to leave the dangerous territory, but there are no corridors,” Vereshchuk told Ukrainian TV.
Meanwhile, gunfire and explosions were heard Tuesday afternoon in the Russian-occupied city of Berdyansk in southastern Ukraine, with Russia’s state-run media reporting that the car of the Kremlin-installed “city commandant” had been blown up. The RIA Novosti news agency said that the official, Artem Bardin, was in serious condition and that a shootout followed the assassination attempt.
The agency quoted Russian-backed local officials as saying they had launched a manhunt for the “Ukrainian saboteurs” responsible.
___
Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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