International

Shelling near Ukraine nuclear plant fuels disaster fears; Russia pounds Donbas

Published

2 years ago

August 29, 2022

A Ukrainian man checks damage in houses following recent Russian shelling in the city of Slovyansk

KYIV (Reuters) – Russian forces have pounded Ukrainian towns across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, officials said, while reports of shelling around the facility fuelled fears of a radiation disaster.

Captured by Russian troops in March but run by Ukrainian staff, Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has been a major hotspot in the six-month conflict with both sides trading blame for recent shelling near the plant.

Russian forces fired at Enerhodar, the city where the plant is located, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said late on Sunday on his Telegram channel alongside a video of fire fighters dousing burning cars.

“They provoke and try to blackmail the world,” chief of staff Andriy Yermak said.

Russian forces also kept up their shelling in the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the east, officials there said.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly address on Sunday, vowed “the occupiers will feel their consequences – in the further actions of our defenders”.

“No terrorist will be left without an answer for attacks on our cities. Zaporizhzhia, Orykhiv, Kharkiv, Donbas – they will receive an answer for all of them,” he said.

Since Russian troops poured over the Ukrainian border in February in what Russian President Vladimir Putin termed a “special military operation,” the conflict has settled into a war of attrition fought primarily in the east and south of Ukraine.

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The U.S. State Department said on Sunday that Russia did not want to acknowledge the grave radiological risk at the south Ukraine plant and had blocked a draft agreement on nuclear non-proliferation because it mentioned such risk.

The United Nations and Ukraine have called for a withdrawal of military equipment and personnel from the plant to ensure it is not a target.

However, Russia’s defence ministry reported more Ukrainian shelling at the plant over the weekend.

Nine shells fired by the Ukrainian artillery landed in the plant’s grounds, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

“At present, full-time technical personnel are monitoring the technical condition of the nuclear plant and ensuring its operation. The radiation situation in the area of the nuclear power plant remains normal,” he said in a statement.

As fears mount of a nuclear accident in a country still haunted by the Chernobyl disaster, Zaporizhzhia authorities are handing out iodine tablets and teaching residents how to use them in case of a radiation leak.

Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said it had no new information about attacks on the plant and Reuters could not verify the accounts.

Regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said on Telegram on Sunday that Russian forces struck residential buildings in the main city of Zaporizhzhia, about a two-hour drive from the plant, and the town of Orikhiv further east.

Ukraine’s military reported shelling of nine more towns in the area on the opposite side of the Dnipro river, while the Russian state news agency cited authorities as saying they had downed a Ukrainian drone which planned to attack the nuclear-waste storage facility at the plant.

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The International Atomic Energy Agency is waiting for clearance for its officials to visit the plant, which the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has said should be “very, very close”. Two of the plant’s reactors were cut off from the electrical grid last week due to shelling.

PUSH FOR SANCTIONS

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine touched off Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War Two.

Thousands of people have been killed, millions displaced and cities blasted to ruins. The war has also threatened the global economy with an energy and food supply crisis.

Russian shelling has displaced more civilians in the east, where three quarters of the population has fled the front-line region of Donetsk, the regional governor has said.

Ukrainian police said Russian forces shelled five areas in Donetsk on Sunday.

The United States and its allies have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia for its invasion and sent billions of dollars in security assistance to the Ukrainian government.

Russia has said sanctions will never make it change its position on Ukraine and Western arms supplies only drag out the conflict.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will travel to Sweden and Czech Republic this week and push for more sanctions on Russia, including an EU-wide visa ban for Russians.

European Union foreign ministers meeting this week are unlikely to unanimously back a visa ban on all Russians, EU foreign policy chief told Austria’s ORF TV.

Reuters

Related Topics:Donbas nuclear plant Russia Ukraine

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International

Over 2,000 Russian troops killed in last 24hrs – Ukraine’s military

Published

10 hours ago

November 29, 2024

Trends Admin

Over 2,000 Russian troops killed in last 24hrs – Ukraine’s military

In a significant escalation, Ukraine’s military reported that Russia lost over 2,000 troops in the past 24 hours, marking the highest daily toll since the conflict began.

According to Reuters, Ukraine’s General Staff disclosed these figures during its regular morning update on Friday, noting that over 300 pieces of Russian weaponry and military equipment were also destroyed. However, the numbers have not been independently verified.

The announcement comes as Russian forces push to capture as much Ukrainian territory as possible ahead of the anticipated return of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, with both sides expecting Washington to advocate for ceasefire discussions in early 2025.

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Despite suffering significant casualties, Russia’s military has made substantial territorial gains over the past month, advancing westward at a pace not seen since the initial stages of the 2022 invasion. The area taken during this period is said to be half the size of London.

The General Staff’s report stated that it could not independently verify the loss figures, as assessing battlefield casualties remains notoriously challenging. This number surpasses the 1,950 Russian troops reported by Ukraine on November 12.

Meanwhile, Russia’s eastern offensive continues, with over 100 attacks launched against critical positions in Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. In response to Ukraine’s use of Western long-range missiles on Russian territory, Moscow has intensified its air strikes. Ukraine reported successfully downing 88 out of 132 drones launched by Russia overnight.

On Thursday, Moscow also launched a significant attack targeting Ukraine’s power infrastructure, leading to widespread blackouts across the nation.

Over 2,000 Russian troops killed in last 24hrs – Ukraine’s military

International

Australia bans under-16 from social media platforms

Published

23 hours ago

November 29, 2024

Trends Admin

Australia bans under-16 from social media platforms

Australia yesterday announced a ban on children aged 16 and below from social media use.

The country’s parliament passed world’s first law banning under-16s despite safety concerns.

The bill was passed amid warning that the process had been rushed and that a ban could push teenagers towards the dark web or into isolation.

Australia’s parliament passed a law that will aim to do what no other government has and many parents have tried to stop children from using social media.

The new law was drafted in response to what the Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, described as a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians”.

Yesterday, the parliament’s upper house – Senate, passed a Bill by 34 votes to 19 banning children under 16 from social media platforms.

But academics, politicians and advocacy groups warned that the ban – as envisioned by the government – could backfire, driving teenagers to the dark web, or making them feel more isolated.

There have been questions about how the ban will be effective.

Many worry that the process has been too rushed, and that, if users are asked to prove their age, it could lead to social media companies being handed valuable personal data. Even Elon Musk has weighed in.

The online safety amendment (social media minimum age) bill bans social media platforms from allowing users under 16 to access their services, threatening companies with fines of up to AU$50m (US$32m) if they fail to comply.

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However, it contains no details about how it will work, only that the companies will be expected to take reasonable steps to ensure users are aged 16 or over. The detail will come later, through the completion of a trial of age-assurance technology in mid-2025.

The bill will not come into force for another 12 months.

It was also silent on which companies the legislation would apply, though Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, said that Snapchat, TikTok, X, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook are likely to be part of the ban.

YouTube will not be included because of its “significant” educational purpose, she said.

The bill was introduced to parliament last week, with just three sitting days left on the parliamentary calendar. It received 15,000 submissions in a day.

Among these was one from Amnesty International recommending that the bill not be passed because a “ban that isolates young people will not meet the government’s objective of improving young people’s lives”.

The number of responses increased dramatically, the Australian broadcaster ABC reported, after X owner Musk reposted a tweet by Albanese announcing that the bill would be introduced that day, writing, “Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians.”

Most of the submissions were a form response, the ABC reported, with fewer than 100 submissions made by interest groups.