France 24
1:21pm: Russia says it foiled Ukrainian attempt to seize nuclear plant on Friday
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 pm 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.
Ukraine’s nuclear plant goes offline amid fighting
Late on Friday evening, the Russian-backed authorities reported that the plant had been under fire for about two hours, blaming Ukrainian forces in the latest of a series of similar claims.
As of Saturday morning, neither the Ukrainian government nor the country’s nuclear energy operator, Enerhoatom, had commented on these allegations.
As a result of the attack and fending off of attack..
Ukraine’s and Europe’s largest nuclear plant was once again knocked offline in the early hours of Saturday amid sustained shelling that destroyed a key power line and penetrated deep into the plant’s premises, local Russian-backed authorities said.
“The Dneprovskaya power line has been hit. The nuclear power plant has switched to servicing its own needs,” Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Kremlin-appointed regional administration, wrote on Telegram, adding that a shell had struck an area between two reactors. His claims could not be immediately verified.
Ukraine is engaging in highly questionable and potentially extremely catastrophic actions.