Zelenskiy inspects front line fortifications as Russia steps up assault on eastern Ukraine

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspected lines of fortifications in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Tuesday and issued a fresh appeal for military support to protect the country’s second largest city from intensified attacks.

Mr Zelenskiy visited the city of Kharkiv, 30km from the Russian border, and the surrounding region, amid what he described as a campaign by Moscow to drive people from the area.

He thanked residents and business people for withstanding the threat, staying on and maintaining life in the city.

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“Strengthening this direction is very important. Russian terrorists must see that Kharkiv is getting stronger,” Mr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

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“I am grateful to everyone who has been worked these weeks to give Kharkiv and the region more electricity, to give more protection against Russian strikes.”

Kharkiv has suffered extensive damage from months of Russian bombardment since president Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In recent weeks, the situation has deteriorated as, in addition to frequent missile and drone attacks, Russian forces started using powerful guided bombs to attack the city.

Oleh Syniehubov, Kharkiv regional governor, said Russian forces struck the city twice with bombs on Tuesday, triggering a fire and damaging buildings. Four people were injured.

In a video posted online, Mr Zelenskiy was seen talking to troops and making his way through a trench as excavators dug up land nearby. He said that energy workers and officials were working to eliminate power shortages in the city.

Hundreds of thousands of residents suffered long power cuts after a major Russian strike in late March.

Ukraine is struggling to protect its cities from almost daily Russian strikes amid shortages of ammunition and air defence systems and a slowdown in supplies from its western partners.

A $60 billion aid package has been held up in the US Congress since last year amid domestic political wrangling.

“Everything that Putin touches turns into ruins. We must do everything possible and impossible to protect as many of our cities and communities as possible from it,” Mr Zelenskiy said.

“Life must be victorious.”

Earlier, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog said an explosion caused by an alleged drone attack at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine posed no direct threat to its safety but underscored the “extremely serious situation” at the facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its team is aware of an explosion at a training centre next to the plant on Tuesday. It said it was informed the blast was from a drone attack.

The IAEA, announcing the incident on social media, gave no further details but its information presumably came from Russians occupying and running the plant since the early stages of the war.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is one of the 10 biggest such facilities in the world, and fighting in the southern part of Ukraine has raised the spectre of a potential nuclear disaster like the one at Chernobyl in 1986, when a reactor exploded and blew deadly radiation across a vast area.

Neither side has in recent months been able to make significant advances along the 100km long front line crossing eastern and southern Ukraine. Drones, artillery and missiles have featured heavily in what has become a war of attrition.

Russia and Ukraine have frequently traded accusations over the Zaporizhzhia plant. On Monday, Moscow alleged Kyiv was behind drone attacks a day before, and Ukraine accused Russia of disinformation.

The IAEA reported on Sunday that its inspectors had confirmed “the physical impact of drone detonations” and watched as “Russian troops engaged what appeared to be an approaching drone”.

Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear plant operator, condemned Russia’s latest allegations in a statement on Tuesday. It accused Moscow of publishing “propaganda” and “false statements” to manipulate public opinion.

It noted that Russia has deployed troops and landmines at the site, which is one of four atomic power plants in Ukraine. The other three remain in Ukrainian hands.

“The dangerous game of the [Russian] occupiers at the nuclear facility must be stopped,” it said.

The most recent strikes did not compromise the facility, according to the IAEA, but it has repeatedly expressed alarm about the plant amid fears of a nuclear catastrophe.

The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months, but it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features.

According to Ukrainian emergency services, a nuclear disaster would force the evacuation of 300,000 people.

Elsewhere, Ukraine’s intelligence agency claimed on Tuesday that it had struck an aviation training centre in south-western Russia with a drone and said a fire on board a Russian navy corvette on the Baltic coast was “not accidental”.

The claims could not be independently verified or corroborated. Russia made no comment on them. – Reuters/AP