Ukraine, Russia dispute over nuclear disaster

High-voltage power lines at a Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant have been hit, but Ukrainian officials say the plant is still operating and no radioactive leak has been detected.

Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom has blamed Russian shelling for damage at Europe’s largest Zaporizhia power plant.

Earlier, the Russian-installed administration of the occupied Ukrainian city of Enerhodar said Ukrainian artillery shells hit a line of factories in the southeastern part of the country.

Interfax news agency quoted city officials as saying a fire had broken out on the plant’s premises, cutting off power necessary for the safe functioning of the reactor.

The factory was captured by Russian forces in early March, in the early stages of the war.

Energoatom said its plant, located about 200 kilometers northwest of the Russian-held port of Mariupol, was still functioning and had detected no radioactive releases.

Further east, both sides insisted on small advances while Russian artillery bombarded large areas of towns and villages in a now-familiar tactic.

Fighting on the ground appeared to be most intense around Pisky in the Donetsk region, near the city of Donetsk, a fortified village held by Ukrainian forces and in the hands of Russian-backed separatists.

The Russian army also has sights on the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiuka as it seeks full control over the eastern Donbass region, the industrial heartland of Ukraine.

In other developments, three grain ships left Ukrainian ports on Friday, the first inbound cargo ship to load Ukraine since the Russian invasion, revitalizing the economy after five months of war. It marks a further step in the Ukrainian government’s efforts to

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin was meeting in the Russian city of Sochi with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who is cultivating his role as a mediator in the war.

“The international community cannot ignore Russia and end the war in Ukraine,” Erdogan’s top aide Fahrettin Altun said.

Turkey helped negotiate a deal that brought the first grain ship to leave Ukrainian ports for foreign markets on Monday since Russia’s invasion on February 24.

Two grain ships departed from Chornomorsk and one from Odessa on Friday, carrying about 58,000 tonnes of maize in total, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.

The Turkish bulk carrier Osprey S, flying the Liberian flag, was scheduled to arrive in Chornomorsk on Friday to load grain, the Odessa regional administration said.

Russia and Ukraine typically produce about one-third of the world’s wheat, and the United Nations said the suspension of grain shipments through the Russian-controlled Black Sea would cause famine in other countries, especially in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. warned that it could lead to

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kublakov said after the departure of the three ships, “the security guarantees of our partners from the United Nations and Turkey will continue to work, food exports from the port will remain stable, and the forecast for all market participants will be improved.” I hope it will be possible,” he said. Friday.

Ukraine’s Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kachka said he hoped the deal would be extended to other commodities such as iron ore.

Ukrainian seaport authorities said on Monday that 68 ships were docked in Ukrainian ports, carrying 1.2 million tonnes of cargo, two-thirds of which were food.

Since Russian troops rushed across the border in February in what Putin called a “special military operation,” the conflict has largely settled into a war of attrition in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Russia seized control of the largely Russian-speaking Donbass, consisting of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, from which pro-Russian separatists seized territory after the Kremlin annexed Crimea to the south in 2014. trying to get

Russia’s TASS news agency said Friday that the separatists said they and the Russian military had taken full control of Pisky.

But Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arrestovich said, “There is little evidence of any movement here. They (Russian forces) tried to advance, but failed.”

Ukraine has turned the village into a stronghold, seeing it as a buffer against Russian-backed forces holding the city of Donetsk, about 10 kilometers to the southeast.