Kyiv: Ukraine's nuclear power provider said on Saturday that Russian forces blindfolded and detained the head of Europe's largest nuclear plant, hours after Moscow illegally annexed a swath of Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of the war. The alleged kidnapping comes at a pivotal moment in Russian President Vladimir Putin's war.
Facing a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Putin this week heightened threats of
nuclear force and used his most aggressive, anti-Western rhetoric to date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military vowed to keep fighting to liberate the annexed regions and other Russian-occupied areas. Ukrainian officials said Saturday that their forces had surrounded thousands of Russian forces holding the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which is located in one of the four incorporated areas. Zelenskyy formally applied on Friday for Ukraine to join NATO, increasing pressure on Western allies to help defend the country. In a possible attempt to secure Moscow's hold on the newly annexed territory, Russian forces seized the
director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, around
4 pm on Friday, Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom said.