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| Photo Credit: AP. |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops on Sunday successfully pressed their swift counteroffensive in the northeastern part of the country, even as a nuclear power plant in the Russia-occupied south completely shut down in a bid to prevent a radiation disaster as fighting raged nearby.
Kyiv’s
action to reclaim Russia-occupied areas in the Kharkiv region forced Moscow to
withdraw its troops to prevent them from being surrounded, leaving behind
significant numbers of weapons and munitions in a hasty retreat as the war marked
its 200th day on Sunday.
A jubilant
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mocked the Russians in a video address
Saturday night, saying “the Russian army in these days is demonstrating the
best that it can do — showing its back.”
He posted a
video of Ukrainian soldiers hoisting the national flag over Chkalovske, another
town reclaimed in the counteroffensive.
Yuriy
Kochevenko, of the 95th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, tweeted a video
from what appeared to be the city center of Izyum. The city was considered an
important command and supply hub for Russia’s northern front.
“Everything around is destroyed, but we will
restore everything. Izyum was, is, and will be Ukraine,” Kochevenko said in his
video, showing the empty central square and destroyed buildings.
While most
attention was focused on the counteroffensive, Ukraine’s nuclear energy
operator said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, was
reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid, allowing engineers to shut down its
last operational reactor to safeguard the plant amid the fighting.
The plant, one
of the 10 biggest atomic power stations in the world, has been occupied by
Russian forces since the early days of the war. Ukraine and Russia have traded
blame for shelling around it.
Since a
Sept. 5 fire caused by shelling knocked the plant off transmission lines, the
reactor was powering crucial safety equipment in so-called “island mode” — an
unreliable regime that left the plant increasingly vulnerable to a potential
nuclear accident.
The
International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog that has two
experts at the plant, welcomed the restoration of external power. But the
agency’s director-general, Rafael Grossi, said he remains “gravely concerned
about the situation at the plant, which remains in danger as long as any
shelling continues.”
He said
talks have begun on establishing a safety and security zone around the plant.
In a call
Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron
urged the withdrawal of Russian troops and weaponry from the plant in line with
IAEA recommendations.
In fighting,
Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyy, said its forces had
recaptured about 3,000 square kilometers (1,160 square miles) since the
counteroffensive began in early September. He said Ukrainian troops are only 50
kilometers (about 30 miles) from the border with Russia.
Kharkiv Gov.
Oleh Syniehubov said Ukrainian troops have reclaimed control of more than 40
settlements in the region, noting he couldn’t give a precise number because the
operation is still unfolding.
Defense
Minister Anna Malyar said Ukrainian forces are firing shells containing
propaganda into areas where they seek to advance.
”One of the
ways of informational work with the enemy in areas where there is no Internet
is launching propaganda shells,” she wrote on Facebook. “Before moving forward,
our defenders say hello to the Russian invaders and give them the last
opportunity to surrender. Otherwise, only death awaits them on Ukrainian soil.”
The
Ukrainian General Staff said Russian forces had also left several settlements
in the Kherson region as Ukrainian forces pressed the counteroffensive. It did
not identify the towns.
An official
with the Russian-backed administration in the city of Kherson, Kirill
Stremousov, said on social media that the city was safe and asked everyone to
stay calm.
The Russian
pullback marked the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since they
thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, near the start of the
war. The Kharkiv campaign came as a surprise for Moscow, which had relocated
many of its troops from the region to the south in expectation of a
counteroffensive there.
In an
awkward attempt to save face, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday the
troops’ withdrawal from Izyum and other areas was intended to strengthen
Moscow’s forces in the neighboring Donetsk region to the south. The explanation
sounded similar how Russia justified its pulling back from Kyiv earlier this
year.
Igor
Strelkov, who led Russia-backed forces when the separatist conflict in the
Donbas erupted in 2014, mocked the Russian Defense Ministry’s explanation of
the retreat, suggesting that handing over Russia’s own territory near the
border was a “contribution to a Ukrainian settlement.”
The retreat
drew an angry response from Russian military bloggers and nationalist
commentators, who bemoaned it as a major defeat and urged the Kremlin to step
up its war efforts. Many criticized Russian authorities for continuing with
fireworks and other lavish festivities in Moscow that marked a city holiday on
Saturday despite the debacle in Ukraine.
Putin
attended the opening of a huge Ferris wheel in a Moscow park on Saturday, and
inaugurated a new transport link and a sports arena. The action underlined the
Kremlin’s narrative that the war it calls a “special military operation” was
going according to plan without affecting Russians’ everyday lives.
Pro-Kremlin
political analyst Sergei Markov criticized the Moscow festivities as a grave
mistake.
“The
fireworks in Moscow on a tragic day of Russia’s military defeat will have
extremely serious political consequences,” Markov wrote on his messaging app
channel. “Authorities mustn’t celebrate when people are mourning.”
In a sign of
a potential rift in the Russian leadership, Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed
head of Chechnya, said the retreat resulted from blunders by the Russian brass.
“They have
made mistakes and I think they will draw the necessary conclusions,” Kadyrov
said. “If they don’t make changes in the strategy of conducting the special
military operation in the next day or two, I will be forced to contact the
leadership of the Defense Ministry and the leadership of the country to explain
the real situation on the ground.”
Despite
Ukraine’s gains, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the head of NATO
warned Friday the war would likely drag on for months, urging the West to keep
supporting Ukraine through what could be a difficult winter.
Sen. Tim
Kaine, a Virginia Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, called Ukrainian advances very encouraging.
“I’m proud
that the U.S. and our allies have locked arms to support the Ukrainian people
in this fight,” Kaine said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We and our
allies must keep standing with Ukraine. Putin needs to recognize that the only
way out is to end his failed war.”
Associated
Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed.
Follow the
AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine