Following days of reported shelling on the site that both Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for, a Russian-installed separatist official said on Monday that anti-aircraft defenses around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, will be strengthened.
The head of the Russian-backed administration in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, also said that the damaged power lines have been restored and the nuclear station is working normally.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Ukraine reported intense Russian shelling across the frontlines with heavy fighting in frontline towns near the eastern city of Donetsk.
Donetsk regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television that the constant shelling throughout the front line is creating a tense situation in the region where Russian troops are also using air strikes as they try to seize control of the industrialized Donbas region.
Ukrainian Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video on YouTube that Ukrainian troops around Kharkiv in the northeast captured the town of Dovhenke and were advancing towards Izium.
He stressed that Russian troops have unsuccessfully tried to regain lost ground and that Ukraine troops may end up encircling them.
As they try to take more territory in Donbas, Russian forces are keeping up the pressure on the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, conducting offensive battles, and trying to displace Ukrainian units with artillery fire.
Ukraine military’s General Staff said that Ukrainian soldiers inflicted fire damage and forced the Russian troops to flee as they were trying to conduct battle reconnaissance in a string of towns and villages close to the main highway towards Luhansk region.
According to Britain’s Ministry of Defence, Russia’s assault towards Bakhmut has been its most successful axis in the Donbas over the last 30 days but the troops have only managed to advance about 10km.
At the same time, Ukraine’s domestic security service, the SBU, informed that Kyiv has arrested two people working for Russian intelligence services and planning to kill Ukraine’s defense minister and the head of its military intelligence agency.