Security fears are intensifying around Europe’s largest nuclear facility, the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant. Russian authorities are preparing to evacuate about 3,100 staff from areas in and around the plant, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear operator said Monday. Nuclear energy experts have warned that fighting near the facility could lead to the disastrous leak of nuclear materials.
Ukraine live briefing: Security fears around Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant intensify amid evacuations
Nearly 1,700 people — including 660 children — have been evacuated from the area already, according to a Moscow-installed official.
Russia launched a swarm of more than 30 Iranian-made drones at the Ukrainian capital in an early-morning air attack Monday, according to Kyiv officials, injuring at least five people and damaging cars and buildings. Kyiv’s military administrator said the hours-long attack marked the fourth time Moscow has targeted the capital in eight days, as it ramps up the frequency of its strikes on the city.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Zaporizhzhia evacuations
- The situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is becoming “unpredictable and potentially dangerous,” the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog warned over the weekend. “I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. “We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment.”
- Zaporizhzhia evacuees have been temporarily relocated elsewhere in the area, the head of the Russian occupation administration in the southern Ukrainian region, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on Telegram late Sunday. Ukraine’s military accused Russian troops of stealing cars and looting goods from the front-line areas under the guise of the evacuation. The Washington Post wasn’t immediately able to verify the claims.
- The Kremlin called on Western leaders to condemn comments by Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, who appeared to condone attacking Russian targets beyond Ukraine’s borders with lethal force. “We will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine,” Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, Kyiv’s military intelligence chief, told Yahoo News. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the comments on Monday as “monstrous.”
Other key developments
- Two people were hospitalized and a residential building was damaged by falling wreckage from a drone in Kyiv’s west in the early hours of Monday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Three others were injured in explosions elsewhere in the city, he said on Telegram.
- Russian forces also bombarded cities across Ukraine with 16 missiles strikes and artillery fire, according to Ukraine’s military early Monday. Targets in the Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa regions were among those struck in the volleys, Kyiv military officials said. The attacks killed and wounded civilians and damaged homes and high-rise buildings, the military said, but it did not immediately provide details. Across the country, military officials said Monday that 35 Iranian-made drones were shot down.
- A large Red Cross warehouse storing humanitarian aid was destroyed in a missile attack on Odessa, Ukraine’s Red Cross society said Monday. The warehouse, covering 10,000 square meters (nearly 108,000 square feet), caught fire, destroying supplies inside that were intended for the Odessa region, charity officials said. As a result, Ukraine’s Red Cross said it has suspended humanitarian relief projects in the area.
- Humanitarian supplies for aid group Project HOPE were also destroyed in warehouse strikes in the Odesa and Khersons regions, the group said. Items destroyed included generators and health hygiene kits, Giorgio Trombatore, the organization’s country director in Ukraine, said in a statement.
The battle for Bakhmut
- A top Ukrainian general said Russia has intensified shelling of Bakhmut, hoping to seize it ahead of Tuesday’s Victory Day holiday, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. “Our task is to prevent this,” Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky wrote on Telegram late Sunday. Russia’s military claimed early Monday that it struck Ukrainian forces in the Bakhmut area, including a command post and ammunition depot, from the air, Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency reported. The Post wasn’t immediately able to verify the claims.
- Russia has apparently agreed to provide the weapons and ammunition needed for Wagner mercenaries to continue the bitter battle for Bakhmut, the head of the mercenary group said Sunday, in an apparent reversal of his previous vow to withdraw his troops from the besieged southern city on Wednesday. “We are promised to be given ammunition and weapons as much as we need to continue further actions,” Yevgeniy Prigozhin said in an audio clip posted on Telegram. Russia’s Defense Ministry has not commented on any arrangements with Wagner.
- Prigozhin has been engaged in a war of words with Russia’s Defense Ministry. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that if his latest claims are true, he has “effectively blackmailed” Russia’s military command into allocating ammunition to his mercenaries, against the command’s apparent wishes to deprioritize that fight.
Global impact
- British Foreign Minister James Cleverly is set to travel to Washington Monday for talks, including over the war in Ukraine, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Cleverly is also slated to appear at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.
- Russian prosecutors charged a man with terrorism offenses as part of their criminal investigation into a car explosion that wounded pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin, Russia’s investigative committee said on Telegram. Prilepin, 47, a fervent supporter of President Vladimir Putin’s war, was driving when he was injured by an explosive device that had been placed under the passenger seat of his car, where his friend and assistant was sitting, Prilepin said on Telegram. The explosion killed his friend and broke both of Prilepin’s legs, he said.
- Russian military recruiters are targeting Central Asian migrant workers living in Russia to send to Ukraine, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Monday. “Recruiters have visited mosques and immigration offices to recruit,” intelligence officials said. According to the update, recruiting migrants is part of Moscow’s strategy for fulfilling its target of signing up 400,000 volunteers to deploy to Ukraine.
From our correspondents
Ukraine has exceeded expectations for 15 months. Now senior leaders are trying to lower those hopes. Ukraine is readying a much anticipated spring assault to seize back territory occupied by Russia. But senior leaders are worried that the advance buildup — aimed at tilting the war in Kyiv’s favor — won’t live up to expectations, Siobhán O’Grady, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Laris Karklis and Samuel Granados report.
“The expectation from our counteroffensive campaign is overestimated in the world,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in an interview. “Most people are … waiting for something huge,” he added, which he fears may lead to “emotional disappointment.”
Karen DeYoung, Kostiantyn Khudov and Siobhán O’Grady contributed to this report.