Live blog: Ukraine plant 'living on borrowed time' — UN nuclear chief

Thursday, April 13, 2023

UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi has warned that "we are living on borrowed time" following two recent landmine explosions near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly expressed fears over the safety of the plant, which is Europe's largest atomic power station.

"Unless we take action to protect the plant, our luck will sooner or later run out, with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment," he said.

Two landmine explosions occurred outside the plant's perimeter fence - the first on 8 April, and another four days later, according to the statement.

Russian forces took control of the six-reactor plant in embattled southern Ukraine in March last year.

For more updates👇

1806 GMT — EU sanctions Russia's Wagner group for activities in Ukraine

Wagner, which is leading Russian battles to try to capture the Ukrainian towns of Bakhmut and Soledar, had already been placed in February on another EU sanctions list for violating human rights and "destabilising" countries in Africa.

The European Council, representing the 27 EU member states, said the new sanctions listing "completes" the previous one.

Wagner, it said, was added anew to the list "for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine".

That Wagner is twice-listed "underscores the international dimension and gravity of the group's activities, as well as its destabilising impact on the countries where it is active," the council said in a statement.

1646 GMT — Kiev says borders must be restored, must join NATO

All Ukrainian cities and Crimea must be part of Ukraine again and a real peace will come by restoring the country's borders, Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said.

"There is no difference between...any Ukrainian city, they all must and will be Ukraine again," he said, speaking via a video link at a Black Sea security conference in Bucharest.

1640 GMT — Russian mine explodes near control room at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: Ukraine

Ukraine claimed that a Russian mine exploded near the control room of the fourth power unit at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

“The Russian occupiers continue to turn the Zaporizhzhia NPP into a military base, mining the perimeter around the station. And these actions cannot but have consequences. According to sources, an explosion rang out near the engine room of the 4th power unit,” a statement by the administration of the city of Enerhodar said on Telegram.

The statement further claimed that the sounds of the explosion were heard by Ukrainian nuclear workers who continue to work at the plant, but that Russians tried to "pacify" the workers and quickly “cover their tracks” so that experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would not see.

“Europe's largest nuclear facility continues to suffer from the arbitrariness of the Russian military and their henchmen, while Ukrainian personnel are desperately trying to maintain the nuclear and radiation safety of the entire continent,” the statement concluded.

Russia and the IAEA have yet to respond to the claims.

1629 GMT — Serbia's president denies sales of military equipment to Ukraine

Serbia never sold weapons or ammunition to Ukraine or Russia, although Serbian arms might have reached the battlefield via third countries, President Aleksandar Vucic said.

He spoke a day after Reuters reported that according to a classified Pentagon document, Belgrade had agreed to supply arms to Kiev, which is fighting a Russian attack, or sent them already.

"Serbia has not and will not export weapons to Ukraine," Vucic told reporters, adding that it equally "has not and will not" export arms or ammunition to Russia, its traditional ally. "There's no document that can prove that," he said.

He further said he was "quite certain" that Serbian ammunition would appear "on one side or the other in the battlefield" in Ukraine, after having been exported to Türkiye, Spain or the Czech Republic.

"They saw one shell (in Ukraine), one bullet. So what, and where else would they appear? There are several war zones around the world." 

"Ammunition is used in wars for killing people," Vucic said.

1544 GMT — Ukraine to get $115B in long-term aid from global partners for reconstruction

Ukraine has said it will receive $115 billion in long-term support for the reconstruction of the country from its international partners.

“This will not only ensure our financial stability, but also send a clear signal to Russia that Ukraine's allies will support us as long as necessary. To complete victory,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in a statement on Telegram, following a ministerial-level round table meeting in support of Ukraine at the World Bank.

Shmyhal said Ukraine is launching its efforts to recover from the ongoing Moscow-Kiev war and that $14 billion will be needed this year for rapid reconstruction projects, further noting that they are negotiating with partner states to attract necessary funds this summer.

"We are extremely grateful to the US, the EU, the World Bank, the IMF, the other G7 countries and all the international partners who are helping us today to stand up and start recovery," he added.

1527 GMT — Germany approves Poland’s request to deliver MiG-29 warplanes to Ukraine: report

Earlier in the day, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed that Berlin received Warsaw’s official request, and he promised that the government would announce its decision soon.

Warsaw needed Berlin’s approval as the Soviet-era fighter jets were handed over to Poland from former East German stocks in 2004.

Poland, a strong ally of Kiev, has so far delivered eight MiG-29 warplanes to Ukraine from its own stocks. Polish President Andrzej Duda said last week that Warsaw is “ready” to deliver six more MiG-29 fighter jets.

1512 GMT —  Russia claims Bakhmut surrounded, Kiev says holding on

The Russian army said its airborne troops were "blocking the transfer of Ukrainian army reserves to the city and the possibility of retreat for enemy units."

It also said that Wagner mercenary units were advancing in Bakhmut.

But the Ukrainian army said it had communication with its troops inside Bakhmut and was able to send them munitions.

"This does not correspond to reality," Sergiy Cherevaty, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern forces said, referring to Russia's claims.

"We are able to... deliver food products, ammunition, medicines, all that is necessary, and also to recover our wounded."

1356 GMT — Russia launches investigation into video shooting of alleged beheading of Ukrainian soldier

"In order to assess the reliability of these materials and make an appropriate decision, they are sent to the investigative authorities for the organisation of verification. The course and results of the audit are put under control by the Attorney General's Office of Russia," The Russian Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

Russian and Ukrainian officials on Wednesday condemned a video circulated on social media networks showing a soldier with a Ukrainian arm patch being beheaded.

The Ukrainian officials accused the Russian military of executing a Ukrainian soldier, while the Russian side said the authenticity of the video has to be checked.

1345 GMT — Triathlon greenlights return of Russian athletes to competition

The executive board of the global governing body of triathlon said it supported the recommendation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of a "return to competition of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports in international competitions".

The board also approved "the lifting of the suspension applied to the countries' participations in World Triathlon events at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine".

"In principle, World Triathlon supports the development of a pathway for independent neutral individual Athletes and Officials with Russian and Belarusian passports to participate in our sports."

The board added it "reaffirms its solidarity with Ukraine in the face of the ongoing war with Russia, and that the independence of any athlete or official was an absolute condition of their returning to a World Triathlon event".

1246 GMT — Russia: Victory in Ukraine 'matter of life and death'

Russian victory in Ukraine is a "matter of life and death" and NATO's increased involvement is prolonging the conflict, the Kremlin said.

"For us, this is a matter of life and death. And therefore we have only one option - everything has to go our way," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a workshop in Moscow

According to Peskov, over the past six months, "the global war that is taking place became more distinct, it has become tougher, more merciless."

1059 GMT — Kiev calls for NATO to secure Black Sea, integrate Ukrainian defences

NATO should play a bigger role in security in the Black Sea, and integrate Ukraine's air and missile defences with those of alliance allies, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said on Thursday.

"The Black Sea is instrumental for making the whole of Europe peaceful and future-oriented," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba, speaking via video link, told a Black Sea security conference in the Romanian capital Bucharest.

"Sadly, it is also a showcase of how rapidly things can deteriorate if one neglects threats.

It's time to turn Black Sea into what the Baltic Sea has become, a sea of NATO."

The remarks were brushed aside in Moscow, where Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing: "The Black Sea can never be a NATO sea."

"This is a shared sea, it must be a sea of cooperation, interaction and security for all its littoral states. And this security is indivisible."

1050 GMT — Ukraine's Naftogaz says wins $5 bn lawsuit against Russia

Ukraine's energy giant Naftogaz said on Thursday that a Hague-based tribunal had ordered Russia to pay the firm $5 billion for the illegal seizure of its assets in Crimea.

Naftogaz chief executive Oleksiy Chernyshov said the firm had "won a key victory on the energy front" over losses he said were caused by Russia's 2014 annexation of the peninsula.

The tribunal, which is administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Dutch city of The Hague, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by AFP.

"Despite Russia's attempts to obstruct justice, the arbitration tribunal ordered Russia to compensate Naftogaz for losses of $5 billion," Chernyshov said.

"This relates to the seizure of our assets in Crimea by Russia in 2014. Russia must now comply with this decision in accordance with its obligations under international law."

Naftogaz said it filed the case in 2016 and the tribunal delivered the verdict on Wednesday.

The award was made after hearings to determine the amount of compensation, which ended in March 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it said.

1030 GMT — Russia identifies Ukrainian suspect in war blogger's killing

Russia's top security agency on Thursday accused a Ukrainian man of involvement in a bombing that killed a well-known Russian military blogger at a St. Petersburg cafe.

Vladlen Tatarsky, 40, an ardent supporter of the war in Ukraine who filed regular reports on the fighting from the front lines, was killed on April 2 as he led a discussion at a riverside cafe in the historic heart of St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city. Over 50 people were injured.

A 26-year-old St. Petersburg resident, Darya Trepova, who was seen on video moments before the blast presenting Tatarsky with a statuette that contained explosives, was quickly arrested. 

According to Russian media reports, Trepova told investigators she was asked to deliver the statuette but didn’t know what was inside it.

Russian authorities described the bombing as an act of terrorism and blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for orchestrating it.

Ukrainian authorities have not directly responded to the accusation, but an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the bombing as part of Russia’s internal turmoil.

On Thursday, the Federal Security Service, known under its Russian acronym FSB, declared that a Ukrainian citizen whom it identified as Yuriy Denysov, had gathered information about the blogger and provided Trepova with explosives delivered via courier service. The agency claimed that Denysov was acting on orders from the Ukrainian security services and left Russia the day after the bombing.

0752 GMT — Ukraine GDP shrank 29.1 percent in 2022: official data

Ukraine's economy contracted by 29.1 percent in 2022, the state statistics service said, as the country has been ravaged by Russia's assault.

By comparison, the pro-Western country's gross domestic product grew 3.4 percent in 2021 prior to the invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2022.

Moscow's war has killed tens of thousands, prompted millions to flee and battered swathes of the economy.

Construction was the hardest-hit sector as it shrank by 67.6 percent last year, the state statistics service said late Wednesday.

The World Bank has said that Ukraine needs $411 billion for its reconstruction and recovery in the wake of Moscow's invasion in February last year.

Russia damaged more than 50 percent of Ukraine's power infrastructure in attacks on its neighbour over the autumn and winter months, the global lender said.

0656 GMT — Kiev: real peace means restoring the borders of Ukraine

All Ukrainian cities and Crimea must and will be part of Ukraine again, and real peace will come by restoring the country's borders, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said on Thursday.

"There is no difference between ... any Ukrainian city, they all must and will be Ukraine again," he said, speaking via a video link at a Black Sea security conference in Bucharest.

0400 GMT — Zelenskyy seeks Russia's frozen assets to rebuild Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised the efforts of forces defending Bakhmut and other areas in the east but made no specific reference to the situation in the town.

Addressing a meeting of international financial institutions pledged to maintain Ukraine's financial stability, Zelenskyy called for faster assistance with a view to rebuilding the country and restoring normal life after the Russian offensive.

"There will be no ruins in Ukraine," he said in his fresh video address after the meeting. "That is our aim. It will be concrete proof of the complete defeat of the terrorist state."

Zelenskyy made two appeals in his address for the country's reconstruction.

“The first one: priority needs for reconstruction," he said. "The total volume of such projects [reconstruction]  is 14.1 billion US dollars. Our government officials who are now in Washington will present the details."

Zelenskyy said the second one is using Russia's frozen assets to compensate Ukraine for the damage Moscow inflicted on it. "It must be clearly stated that the assets, including the assets of the Russian Central Bank, will be confiscated," Zelenskyy added.

For our live updates from Wednesday (April 12), click here.