Day 9 of Russian invasion

Ukraine update

România Internațional, 04.03.2022, 12:34

The second week of Russias invasion of Ukraine began with an alert at Ukraines largest nuclear power plant in the southeast. A fire broke out following Russian bombings, and fighting around the Zaporozhye plant delayed firefighters. Ukrainian officials said that safety at the power plant, which was later occupied by Russian military forces, was guaranteed and that radiation levels had not risen in the area. Also in Bucharest, the authorities announced that they do not detect increased radioactivity. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of resorting to nuclear terror with the intention of repeating the Chernobyl catastrophe of 1986. The Kyiv leader spoke on the phone with the US President Joe Biden and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who called urgently summoning the UN Security Council.

Also today, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has warned that the Russian army continues preparations for the landing of airborne troops in the Odessa region, and Radio Romania’s envoy to the region reports that a ground and sea offensive is imminent. On the other hand, the second round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations ended with an agreement on the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from the besieged areas, with the parties agreeing to meet next week as well. At least 1 million people have left Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion. In Washington, President Biden has announced additional sanctions against Russian billionaires accused of supporting Vladimir Putins regime. At the same time, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting today in Brussels with the NATO foreign ministers, and he will later travel to Eastern Europe. (LS)