The recently restored power line supplying the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been cut again, forcing the plant to switch to emergency diesel generators, the UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said.
“Our team at #Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant informed me this morning that the plant has lost all of its external power for the 2nd time in five days,” Mr Grossi said on Twitter, renewing his call for a protection zone around the plant to prevent shelling near the facility
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he expects a positive response from Western allies in Brussels today to his requests for a rapid increase in military aid as the country’s cities faced more Russian missile strikes.
After intense Russian missile attacks on Monday, Mr Zelensky appealed to the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations yesterday for more air defence capabilities.
The G7 – which groups the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Italy and Canada – pledged continued “financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support…for as long as it takes” to Ukraine, it said in a statement.
It also condemned “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations” as war crimes and said Russian President Vladimir Putin would be held to account for them.
US President Joe Biden said he believes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is a normally rational actor who badly misjudged his prospects of occupying Ukraine.
In remarks released by CNN ahead of an interview, Mr Biden said: “I think… he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that where he was going to be welcomed, and I think he just totally miscalculated”.
President Biden also said that he did not think Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon in the war with Ukraine.
Asked by CNN how realistic he believed it would be for Mr Putin to use a tactical nuclear weapon, responded: “well, I don’t think he will.”
A US led coalition of some 50 countries known as the Ukraine Defence Contact Group will meet in Brussels on the sidelines of a NATO defence ministers meeting.
“I am anticipating from our partners progress on matters of anti-aircraft and anti-missile defences and agreements on new supplies of different weapons and ammunition vital for us,” Mr Zelensky said in an evening address last night.
The Ukrainian military, which has recaptured significant territory from Russian forces in the past month, said that Russian missile strikes had damaged more than ten cities, including Lviv, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Zaporizhzhia.
Air raid sirens were heard across the country for a second day yesterday.
“Over the past 24 hours, the occupiers have again resorted to mass missile strikes – more than 30 cruise missiles, seven air strikes and 25 instances of shelling,” Ukraine’s armed forces said.
The Ukrainian command said its forces killed more than 100 Russian troops in the southern Kherson region. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
The activity was less intense than the day before when dozens of strikes killed 19 people, wounded more than 100 and knocked out power across the country in Moscow’s biggest aerial offensive since the start of its invasion on 24 February.
More missile strikes yesterday killed seven people in the south eastern Ukrainian town of Zaporizhzhia, a presidential aide said, and left part of the western city of Lviv without power, according to local officials.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov celebrated the arrival from the US of what he said were four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers.
4 additional HIMARS from our
partners have arrived!
I thank @POTUS Joe Biden @SecDef Lloyd Austin III & the American people.
HIMARS time:good time for Ukrainians and bad time for the occupiers.
Great news on the eve of #Ramstein 6, where I’m going tomorrow. There will be more.— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) October 11, 2022
The accuracy and longer range weapons have allowed Ukraine to reduce Russia’s artillery advantage and fuelled the country’s recent counter-offensive.
The US said it was speeding up the shipment of sophisticated NASAMS air defences to Ukraine, while has received the first of four IRIS-T air defence systems Germany promised to supply, a German defence ministry source said.
Germany, the current president of the Group of Seven rich economies, will host a conference on Ukraine’s recovery in Berlin on 25 October.
Moscow ‘open to talks with West’
Moscow, which calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to eliminate dangerous nationalists and protect Russian speakers, has accused the West of escalating and prolonging the conflict by supporting Kyiv.
“We warn and hope that they realise the danger of uncontrolled escalation in Washington and other Western capitals,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by RIA news agency.
Kyiv and its Western backers accuse Russia of an unprovoked land grab in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was open to talks with the West, a claim Washington dismissed as “posturing” because Russia has continued to strike Ukrainian cities.
In an interview on state television, Mr Lavrov said Russia was willing to engage with the US or with Turkey on ways to end the war, now in its eight month, but had yet to receive any serious proposal to negotiate.
Mr Zelensky yesterday again ruled out peace talks with the Russian president.
Ukrainian authorities said they have exhumed the bodies of dozens of people, including civilians and a one-year-old baby, following the retreat of Russian troops from two towns in the eastern Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, the US has been leading an all-out offensive to rally as many countries as possible to adopt a resolution at the UN condemning Moscow’s annexation of Ukrainian regions.
“We believe the time has long passed for neutrality. There is no such thing as neutrality in a situation like this,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
UN countries are debating a resolution introduced to the General Assembly by Ukraine, which the West hopes will demonstrate the isolation of Mr Putin’s Russia on the international stage, with a vote likely today or tomorrow.
As well as this, G7 finance officials will meet to discuss Ukraine’s financing and reconstruction needs on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Officials from the IMF and Ukraine will meet in Vienna next week for technical discussions on Ukraine’s budget with an eye to laying the groundwork for a future full-fledged lending programme.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on US allies to accelerate financial disbursements to Ukraine.
“We are calling on our partners and allies to join us by swiftly disbursing their existing commitments to Ukraine and by stepping up in doing more,” Ms Yellen said as she received her Ukrainian counterpart, Sergii Marchenko.
She said speedier and greater aid would help Ukraine maintain essential government services and “begin to build and recover.”
“We’re committed to getting this funding to you as soon as possible because we know how important it is in supporting your brave resistance to Russia’s illegal invasion,” she said.
Washington had also joined with Ukraine’s major creditors to suspend the country’s bilateral debt service payments this year and next year, she said.
“But let me be clear: international support for Ukraine is a collective effort.
“We are calling on our partners and allies to join us by swiftly disbursing their existing commitments to Ukraine and by stepping up in doing more – both to help Ukraine continue its essential government services and to help Ukraine begin to build and recover,” she said.
Zaporizhzhia power cut again, says IAEA chief
Source: Viral Trends Report
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