International Desk (National Times) – Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control, was rocked by shelling on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog who said such attacks risked a major nuclear disaster.
POWER SUPPLIES
* Ukrainian electricity supplies are under control despite Russian attacks on power-generating infrastructure and there is no need to panic, the energy ministry said on Saturday, a day after the government stated that almost half of Ukraine’s energy system had been crippled, and authorities in Kyiv warned that the capital could face a “complete shutdown” of the power grid as winter sets in.
TRAIN RIDE TO KHERSON
* Jubilant Ukrainians rolled into Kherson by train on Saturday for the first time in more than eight months as residents of the newly liberated southern city greeted them on the platform with flowers and national flags.
* Citing damage done by Russian forces, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced on Saturday that evacuations of people who want to leave Kherson and the surrounding areas would soon begin.
FIGHTING
* Around 60 Russian soldiers were killed in a long-range Ukrainian artillery attack this week, Kyiv said on Saturday, the second time in four days that Ukraine claimed to have inflicted major casualties in a single incident. The Russian defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
* Five people were wounded in a Russian strike on a humanitarian station where bread was being distributed in the town of Bilozerka, just west of Kherson city, a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
* Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.
CORN CROP
* Significant areas of Ukraine’s corn crop may be left to overwinter in the fields due to difficulties with harvesting and fuel shortages, analyst APK-Inform said.
DIPLOMACY, WAR AIMS
* Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made his first visit to Kyiv on Saturday, pledging to continue the firm support for Ukraine that was a focus of his predecessors, and providing a new air defence package to help shoot down Russian drones.
* Russia’s surge in missile strikes in Ukraine is partly designed to exhaust Kyiv’s supplies of air defenses and finally achieve dominance of the skies above the country, a senior Pentagon official said on Saturday.
* Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has offered a preview of “a possible world of tyranny and turmoil,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday in a speech to a security forum in Canada.
