Russia, West step up energy war
KYIV/ Zaporizhzhia: Ukrainian forces attempted to capture the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in an attack on the facility on Friday night, Russia's defence ministry said in its daily briefing on Saturday.
The ministry said a Ukrainian naval force of more than 250 troops attempted to land on the coast of a lake near the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine at around 11 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Friday.
"Despite the presence of representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the Kyiv regime once again attempted to seize the plant," the defence ministry said.
Russia said its forces foiled the attack with strikes from military helicopters and fighter jets, destroying 20 Ukrainian vessels and causing others to scatter and call off the attack.
Reuters was unable to verify the report.
Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations about attacks on the power plant, Europe's largest nuclear energy station, in recent months.
The plant was captured by Russian forces in March, but is connected to the Ukrainian power grid and is still operated by Ukrainian staff.
Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia plant has stopped supplying Ukrainian-held territories with electricity, Kremlin-backed authorities said Saturday, as a team of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog continued their mission at the site.
The Russian-appointed city administration in Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant is located, blamed an alleged Ukrainian shelling attack on Saturday morning, which they said had destroyed a key power line.
The provision of electricity to the territories controlled by Ukraine has been suspended due to technical difficulties, the municipal administration said in a post on its official Telegram channel.
It wasn't clear whether electricity from the plant was still reaching Russian-held areas.
Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Kremlin-appointed regional administration said on Telegram that a shell had struck an area between two reactors.
His claims could not be immediately verified.
Over the past weeks, Ukraine and Russia have traded blame over shelling at and near the plant, while also accusing each other of attempts to derail the visit from U.N. experts, who arrived at the plant
Thursday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's mission is meant to help secure the site.
Russia's Defence Ministry said that Ukrainian troops launched another attempt to seize the plant late Friday, despite the presence of the IAEA monitors, sending 42 boats with 250 special forces personnel and foreign mercenaries to attempt a landing on the bank of the nearby Kakhovka reservoir.
The ministry said that four Russian fighter jets and two helicopter gunships destroyed about 20 boats and the others turned back.
It added that the Russian artillery struck the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the Dnieper River to target the retreating landing party.
The ministry claimed that the Russian military killed 47 troops, including 10 mercenaries and wounded 23. The Russian claims couldn't be independently verified.
Russia reported earlier that about 60 Ukrainian troops previously tried to land near the plant on Thursday and Russian forces thwarted that attempt.
As of Saturday morning, neither the Ukrainian government nor the country's nuclear energy operator, Enerhoatom, had commented on these allegations. The plant has repeatedly suffered complete disconnection from Ukraine's power grid since last week, with Enerhoatom blaming mortar shelling and fires near
the site.
