The chief engineer at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been killed by a Ukrainian drone near the station, Russian authorities have said.
Alexei Likhachev, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said in a statement that a Ukrainian drone had struck a service car between the plant’s site and the town of Enerhodar, killing the engineer, Alexander Yakovlev, and the driver on Wednesday.
Last week, Moscow accused Ukraine of escalating what it called “terror” actions against the power station. The power plant is Europe’s largest nuclear reactor and was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It comes after Ukraine’s drone forces claimed to have hit 116 vessels in the Sea of Azov in the past nine days as Vladimir Putin vowed a powerful retaliation to Ukrainian attacks on its territory. The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces said its drones struck several tankers and cargo ships with the aim of damaging Russia’s “shadow fleet”.
Russia is considering rerouting cargo from the Sea of Azov after increased Ukrainian attacks on shipping, the transport ministry said on Tuesday. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called the attacks an “acts of terrorism”.
Donald Trump said he still believes that Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine soon, despite indications Russia is likely to escalate. “I think he’s ready to make a deal,” Trump said in a Fox News interview, taped on Tuesday, when asked about his conversations with Putin. Three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Kyiv and was likely to escalate the conflict, now in its fifth year.
Trump had promised to have a deal to the war on the first day of his presidency in January 2025. Despite four grinding years and Ukraine now successfully smashing Russia’s energy infrastructure, Vladimir Putin has no interest in trying to end the war for one key reason, Bill Browder tells Sam Kiley on the ‘World of Trouble’ podcast.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that he was working on Ukraine’s EU accession in talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv. The EU and Ukraine laid the groundwork for a major defense agreement on drones, Zelensky said, adding that they now expect financial support from the EU on their anti-ballistic-missile programme.
Russia and Ukraine stepped up their battle over the Black Sea and key trade routes on Wednesday, with Moscow killing three people in an attack on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and Kyiv’s drone forces striking Russian shipping. Odesa region Governor Oleh Kiper said that a “massive” Russian drone and missile attack on the southern region continued for a fifth day, with civilian, industrial and port infrastructure coming under attack. Three people were killed and at least three more injured after a Russian missile strike on a seven-storey residential building in Odesa, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russia in recent days has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s deepwater Black Sea ports in the Greater Odesa area, which handle much of the country’s grain and other cargo and are vital to its wartime economy. While Ukraine has expanded its campaign to disrupt logistics for Russia’s forces in areas Moscow occupies in southern Ukraine and to isolate Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Ukrainian drones hit 20 Russian vessels in the Black Sea overnight, Kyiv’s top drone forces commander said on Wednesday. “Now Black Sea,” Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said on Telegram, adding that 116 vessels have been struck in the Sea of Azov this month.
Europe’s biggest nuclear reactor has become a battlefield in Ukraine’s defence against Russian invaders as they risk a catastrophic meltdown in its efforts to connect it to Moscow’s national grid. Speaking to The Independent’s Sam Kiley in October, Mykhailo Shuster, nuclear expert and former director of procurement at Energoatom – Ukraine’s nuclear power agency – explained how Russia is risking nuclear catastrophe with attempts to syphon power from the plant.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is a key asset in Russia’s war with Ukraine. It is Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, and was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It has remained a dangerous potential flashpoint for a nuclear disaster ever since. Fighting and bombardments by both sides of the complex and the power station itself, which has been entirely occupied by Russian forces who base troops in its buildings, have forced the “cold shutdown” of the reactors. This means that its nuclear material is not used to generate power but needs to be constantly cooled.
On Friday, the Kremlin accused Ukraine of escalating what it called “terror” actions against the power station. The chief engineer at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been killed by a Ukrainian drone near the station, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Wednesday. Alexei Likhachev said in a statement that a Ukrainian drone had struck a service car between the plant’s site and the town of Enerhodar, killing the engineer, Alexander Yakovlev, and the driver.
Ukraine and the EU have sealed a “drone deal” aiming to combine Kyiv’s expertise with EU industrial capacity, Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. The European Commission President said the EU could offer advantages to Ukraine such as “huge technological and industrial capacity” and “safe and secure production sites”. Ukraine has signed a series of such drone deals with individual countries. At last week’s NATO summit in Ankara, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed three more, saying that brought the total to nine. But Wednesday’s deal is the first intended to cover countries and companies across the EU. It is part of a new EU-Ukraine defence industrial partnership which the Commission, the EU’s executive body, said would expand to include anti-ballistic missiles by 2028.
“We will do everything necessary to build Europe’s anti-ballistic system by integrating all European anti-ballistic capabilities,” Zelensky said in his speech to the ceremony. The partnership reflects a growing desire among European politicians and companies to tap into Ukrainian expertise gained from the war that began after Russia’s invasion as they seek to boost their own defences against Moscow.
