Ukraine on Sunday claimed the recapture of two towns in the Donetsk region, the first since it launched a counteroffensive in three sectors of the front, one of them in the Zaporizhya region.
In Zaporizia, concerns have grown over the safety of the nuclear power plant built there, following the explosion of a dam that supplied the power plant with water and intensifying fighting in the immediate vicinity.
“The glorious soldiers of the 68th brigade (…) liberated the town of Blahodatne” on the southern front of Donetsk, near the Zaporizhian administrative border, the unit stated on the Facebook social network.
Valeri Shershen, spokesman for the defense forces of the Tavria region of Ukraine, added: “We are seeing the first results of the counteroffensive actions.”
Shortly after, the 7th battalion of a division of the Territorial Defense Forces announced the recapture of the town of Neskuchne, in the same province and less than 20 kilometers from neighboring Zaporizia, 80% occupied by Russian troops and one of the main Focus of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
This is the first liberation of occupied territories since the start of the Ukrainian offensive a week ago, and comes a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky first admitted that the counter-offensive was underway.
While Kiev is silent on the scope and progress of the offensive actions, Russian daily war reports indicate that the heaviest fighting is currently taking place in the Zaporizhia region around Orykhiv and Lobkove.
The villages are situated only 110 and 83 kilometers respectively from the occupied city of Energodar, where the Zaporizh Nuclear Power Plant is located.
“The increase in military activities in the region raises our deep concern for the safety of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe,” said the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi.
Russia again claimed today that it had repelled all attacks in this sector, but the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its daily analysis that geolocated images “indicate that Ukrainian forces made localized advances to the southwest and southeast of Orchiv”.
It is not only the fighting at the front that worries the West, but also the drastic drop in the water level in the reservoir near the nuclear power plant, essential for its cooling.
The water fell from 17 meters before the dam burst on Tuesday to 9.1 meters today, according to the Ukrainian public company Ukrhydroenergo.
Estimates at the plant, which has been under Russian occupation for more than a year, were as of last Friday that it would be possible to pump water from the reservoir to the power station to a level of 11 meters “or possibly less.”
Ukraine’s nuclear energy company, Energoatom, said today that “despite the fact that the Russian occupiers blew up the Kakhovka dam, on Russian-controlled territory, the situation remains stable and under control.”
Ukraine claims that even if the plant loses access to water from the dam, the structure can continue to be cooled by water from the plant’s cooling tank, the level of which remains stable at 16.67 meters.
The Russian operator of the plant, created after the annexation of the Zaporizhia region last September, said today that it “implements all measures to ensure the safety of the plant, including those related to the refrigeration system.”
Today, divers from the Russian Emergencies Ministry carried out work to ensure an adequate water level in the tank.
Five of the plant’s six reactors are in “cold shutdown” mode, while the last one is currently in “hot shutdown” mode and delivering steam.
“Although there is no short-term threat, the dam disaster is causing significant new difficulties for the plant, at a time when the nuclear safety and security situation is already extremely fragile and potentially dangerous during the war,” insisted. Raphael Grossi.
The Argentine will travel next week with a reinforced team to Zaporizia, where a permanent mission from the agency is monitoring the situation.
Source: TSF
