Russia says it shot down Ukrainian drone at nuclear plant
\nZAPORIZHZHIA
\nUkraine announced on Monday the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive to retake territory in the south seized by Russian forces since their invasion six months ago, a move reflecting Kyiv\u2019s growing confidence as Western military aid flows in.
\nThe news came as a team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog headed to Ukraine to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – captured by Russian forces in March but still run by Ukrainian staff – that has become a hotspot in the war.
\nMoscow and Kyiv have traded accusations of shelling in the vicinity of the nuclear plant, Europe\u2019s largest and close to front lines, amid fears of a radiation disaster in a country still haunted by the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.
\n\u201cToday we started offensive actions in various directions, including in the Kherson region,\u201d Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne cited southern command spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk as saying.
\nRussia rapidly captured swathes of Ukraine\u2019s south near the Black Sea coast, including the city of Kherson, in the early phase of the war in stark contrast to its failed attempt to capture the capital Kyiv.
\nUkraine has been using sophisticated Western-supplied weapons to hit Russian ammunition dumps and wreak havoc with supply lines. Humeniuk told a briefing on Monday that Ukraine had struck more than 10 such ammunition dumps in the past week, adding they had \u201cunquestionably weakened the enemy\u201d.
\nShe declined to give details of the counter-offensive, saying Russian forces in southern Ukraine remained \u201cquite powerful\u201d.
\nThe governor of Ukraine\u2019s Russian-annexed Crimea Peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, dismissed her announcement as \u201canother fake of Ukrainian propaganda\u201d. Crimea is adjacent to the Kherson region.
\nRussia\u2019s RIA news agency, quoting local official Vladimir Leontiev, reported that people were being evacuated from workplaces in Nova Kahokva, a town 58 km (36 miles) to the east of Kherson, after Ukrainian forces carried out more than 10 missile strikes there.
\nRussian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the IAEA mission must carry out its work in a politically neutral manner. \u201cThey must be objective,\u201d she told Rossiya 24 television channel.
\nRussian forces fired at Enerhodar, the Dnipro riverside town where the plant is located, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s chief of staff said late on Sunday on his Telegram channel alongside a video of firefighters dousing burning cars. \u201cThey provoke and try to blackmail the world,\u201d Andriy Yermak said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia says it shot down Ukrainian drone at nuclear plant ZAPORIZHZHIA Ukraine announced on Monday the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive to retake territory in the south seized by Russian forces since their invasion six months ago, a move reflecting Kyiv\u2019s growing confidence as Western military aid flows in. The news came as a team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-280415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n