#War #Ukraine #Developments
Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
– nuclear power plant shut down –
Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which has been controlled by Russian forces since the beginning of the war, is disconnected from the national power supply, according to the state energy company.
“The actions of the intruders caused a complete disconnection of the (facility) from the power grid – the first in the history of the facility,” Energoatom says on the messaging app Telegram.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has been the target of military strikes for which each side blames the other.
The attacks have fueled fears of a nuclear disaster on the scale of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.
Kiev officials said they believe Moscow seized the station in southern Ukraine to divert power to the Crimea peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
– Deadly train station strike –
Russia says it killed over 200 Ukrainian soldiers in an attack on a train station in central Ukraine that Kyiv said killed 25, including children.
“As a result of a direct hit by an Iskander missile on a military train at the Chaplyne railway station in the Dnepropetrovsk region, more than 200 soldiers of the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and 10 units of military equipment were destroyed,” the Russian Defense Ministry says in its daily briefing.
Since Moscow dispatched troops, Ukrainian railways have played a crucial role in the evacuation of large parts of the country.
According to the Defense Ministry, the train was “en route to combat zones” in the eastern Donbass region, which Moscow wants to fully control.
The EU has condemned the “heinous” attack on civilians carried out on Wednesday, the day Ukraine marked Independence Day and six months since the invasion of Moscow began.
– Putin increases army strength –
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a decree increasing the country’s army.
Russia’s army will have over two million people as of January 2023, including 1.15 million soldiers.
Putin last set the army strength at around 1.9 million people with 1.01 million soldiers in 2017.
While the decree does not outline the reasons for the increase, it comes as Moscow’s troops are focused on seizing territory in eastern Ukraine.
The decree also comes at a time of rising tensions between Moscow and Western countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia.
– Latvia removes Soviet-era monument –
Latvia is tearing down a Soviet-era monument in Riga after Russia invaded Ukraine, despite protests from the Baltic state’s ethnic Russian minority to keep it.
Demolition machines were used to remove the 79-meter (259-foot) WWII memorial that has become a rallying point for Kremlin supporters in Latvia.
Like the other Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania, Latvia is a NATO and EU member that has shown strong support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.
Latvia’s ethnic Russian community – which makes up 30 percent of the population – had protested the removal of the monument to the liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German fascist invaders.
Riga’s parliament has voted to remove all remaining Soviet statues and plaques by mid-November.
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