The war in Ukraine took a perilous turn on Friday as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces were accused of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant before taking control of the facility. Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency said a fire sparked by Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, about 400 miles southeast of Kyiv, was extinguished and the plant was secure, with no radiation leaks detected. Russia blamed Ukraine for the fire, calling it a “monstrous provocation.”
But Putin’s brutal invasion entered its ninth day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing him of “nuclear terror,” saying no country had ever deliberately “shot at nuclear blocks except for Russia.”
In a video address broadcast Thursday night, Putin claimed his “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of what he labels a “neo-Nazi” regime was going according to plan. But with his ground forces making slow progress toward the capital this week and pressure from unprecedented international sanctions mounting fast, Russia’s military has relied increasingly on heavy artillery in a bid to pummel Ukrainians into submission. They’re putting up a fierce resistance.
Moscow insists it’s only hitting military targets, but with residential apartment buildings destroyed and schools and hospitals struck in several cities, the U.N. says at least 249 civilians have been killed and acknowledged the true toll is likely “considerably higher.” Ukrainian officials put it at over 2,000. The U.N. says the onslaught has already driven more than 2 million people from their homes.
Russian troops have surrounded at least five cities in the south and east, and U.S. officials say they could encircle the capital, Kyiv, within a few days. But reluctant to risk direct military engagement with Russian forces, the West has shown no inclination to grant mounting requests for a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine. So there’s little reason to hope the daily artillery barrage, mass human exodus or the casualty tolls are likely to ease anytime soon.
