War in Ukraine set to enter new phase, says UK military intelligence
- Russian forces are almost certainly amassing in the south of Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Twitter
- Ukraine disconnected a generator at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – Europe’s largest atomic power complex – after it was shelled on Friday
Russian forces are almost certainly amassing in the south of Ukraine, anticipating a counter-offensive or in preparation for a possible assault, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Twitter.
Long convoys of Russian military trucks, tanks, towed artillery and other weapons continue to move away from Ukraine’s Donbas region and are headed southwest.
Battalion tactical groups, which comprise 800-1,000 troops, have been deployed to Crimea and would almost certainly be used to support Russian troops in the Kherson region, the update said.
Ukrainian military personnel are fortifying their positions around the eastern city of Sloviansk in expectation of a fresh Russian attempt to seize the strategic point in the fiercely fought-over Donetsk region.
As heavy ground fighting continues on the front line only miles to the east, southeast and north of Sloviansk, members of the Dnipro-1 Regiment are digging in after a week of relative calm. The last Russian strike on the city occurred on July 30.
Sloviansk is considered a strategic target in Moscow’s ambitions to seize all of Donetsk province, a largely Russian-speaking area in eastern Ukraine where Russian forces and pro-Moscow separatists control about 60 per cent of the territory.
Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were “seriously damaged” by military strikes that forced one of its reactors to shut down, the plant’s operator said on Saturday.
The Friday strikes on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south Ukraine – Europe’s largest atomic power complex – “seriously damaged” a station containing nitrogen and oxygen and an “auxiliary building,” Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom said on the Telegram messaging service.
Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for the attacks.
Russian troops have occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant since the early days of their invasion and Kyiv has accused them of storing heavy weapons there. But Moscow, in turn, has accused Ukrainian forces of targeting the plant.
Staff at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant ‘under Russian orders’
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been trying for weeks to send a team to inspect the plant. Ukraine has so far rejected the efforts, which it says would legitimise Russia’s occupation of the site in the eyes of the international community.
It said employees of Russian nuclear operator Rosatom had left the plant shortly before the attacks but that Ukrainian personnel had stayed on and the plant was still generating electricity.
Russian forces began an assault Saturday on two key cities in the eastern Donetsk region and kept up rocket and shelling attacks on other Ukrainian cities, including one close to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s military and local officials said.
Both cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka had been considered key targets of Russia’s ongoing offensive across Ukraine’s east, with analysts saying Moscow needs to take Bakhmut if it is to advance on the regional hubs of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
