According to Ukraine’s nuclear company, two reactors have been restarted and the plant has been reconnected to the power grid.
Zelenskiy warns that the Zaporizhzhia plant could soon be “one step away from a catastrophe.”
According to Medvedev, dropping Ukraine’s NATO ambitions is insufficient to end the war.
Ukraine shuts down a bridge near Kherson.
According to the regional governor, 3/4 of the population has fled the Donetsk region.
Ukraine’s president said on Friday that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains “very risky” despite the reconnection of two of its six reactors to the grid following shelling that caused Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to be disconnected for the first time in its history.
According to the regional governor, three-quarters of the population has fled the frontline region of Donetsk, and Ukraine has continued to obstruct Russia’s supply routes to the southern front near Kherson.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, announced on Friday evening that both of the plant’s two operational reactors had been reconnected to the grid and were once again supplying electricity after being completely disconnected on Thursday.
“Let me emphasise that the situation continues to be very risky and dangerous,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his regular evening address, praising Ukrainian experts who are working to “avert the worst-case scenario.”
“Any repeat of yesterday’s events, that is, any disconnection of the station from the grid, any action by Russia that could cause the reactors to be disconnected, would once again put the station one step away from a catastrophe,” Zelenskiy said.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February, took control of the nuclear plant in March, though it is still run by Ukrainian Energoatom technicians.
The two sides have traded blame for shelling near the plant, which ignited fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station on Thursday, cutting the plant off from the power grid.
Satellite images showed a fire near the plant, but the cause could not be determined.
Zelenskiy also reiterated Ukraine’s demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, be allowed to visit the Zaporizhzhia plant as soon as possible.
Moscow, which has forces stationed at the plant complex, said it was doing everything possible to ensure the safety of an IAEA visit, which is expected in the coming days. Ukraine, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, is attempting to disrupt such a visit by attacking the plant.
Residents in Zaporizhzhia, 50 kilometres northeast of the plant, expressed concern about the situation.
“Of course, I’m terrified. Everyone is terrified; we have no idea what will happen next, what awaits us every minute, second, and hour “said 25-year-old social media manager Maria Varakina.
Hanna Kuz, a 46-year-old school teacher, expressed concern that the Ukrainian authorities might not be able to warn residents in time in the event of radiation fallout.
The Kremlin claims that its goal is to “denazify” and demilitarise Ukraine in order to eliminate perceived security threats to Russia. Ukraine and the West argue that this is a sham pretext for a conquest war.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin ally, said in a French television interview on Friday that Russia was willing to hold talks with Zelenskiy under certain conditions, but that Moscow would not stop its offensive until its objectives were met.
“Renouncing (Ukraine’s) participation in the North Atlantic alliance is now critical, but it is already insufficient to establish peace,” Medvedev said, according to Russian news agencies.
FIGHTING
Ukrainian rocket fire knocked out an important bridge in the Kherson region on Friday, according to Ukraine’s southern military command.
The destruction of the Darivsky bridge, which Russian forces use to cross the Inhulets River just east of Kherson, will complicate Moscow’s efforts to supply its troops in the Russian-occupied city that Ukraine wishes to reclaim, it said.
“Our soldiers are doing everything in their power to reduce the occupiers’ fighting and logistical potential,” Zelenskiy said in his speech, referring to recent attacks on Russian supply depots and bridges.
Moscow did not respond immediately.
According to the Ukrainian military general staff, Russian aircraft attacked several sites in the south, including the city of Mykolaiv, a river port just off the Black Sea.
According to the general staff, there were also air strikes against several towns in the Sumy region near the Russian border, and Russian forces shelled and carried out air attacks against the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
The governor of the eastern Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said three-quarters of the population had been evacuated.
“There isn’t a single major town or city that isn’t subject to (Russian) shelling,” he told Ukrainian television.
Also on Friday, Washington confirmed reports that a U.S. citizen had recently died in Ukraine, but declined to provide any additional information.
According to the Russian state news agency TASS, the deputy traffic police chief in the occupied Ukrainian city of Berdiansk was killed in a bombing on Friday. Its Russian-installed government blamed the explosion on “Ukrainian saboteurs.” The Defense Ministry of Ukraine did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters was unable to confirm either side’s battlefield reports.
