- Russian forces are starting to leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to Ukraine’s main department of intelligence for the defence ministry.
- According to the latest data, the occupation contingent is gradually leaving the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
- Ukrainian employees who signed a contract with Rosatom were also advised to evacuate.
- Multiple explosions have hit an area near an airport in the occupied port city of Berdyansk in Ukraine’s south eastern Zaporizhzhia region.
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has ordered top military commanders to strengthen Ukraine’s northern military sector.
Russian forces are starting to leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to Ukraine’s main department of intelligence for the defence ministry. Moscow’s troops have occupied the facility since March last year, and Ukraine has recently carried out nuclear disaster response drills in anticipation of a potential attack.
Concerns have been raised about the security of the plant throughout the war, with both sides blaming each other for attacks on its building. A number of workers have been instructed to leave the plant by 5 July, Kyiv’s main intelligence directorate said in a Telegram post.
“According to the latest data, the occupation contingent is gradually leaving the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. One of the first to leave the plant was three Rosatom employees who were in charge of the Russians’ actions.
“Ukrainian employees who signed a contract with Rosatom were also advised to evacuate. According to the instructions received, they should leave by July 5.”
It also emphasized that the number of military patrols is “gradually decreasing” around the plant.
Multiple explosions have hit an area near an airport in the occupied port city of Berdyansk in Ukraine’s south eastern Zaporizhzhia region, according to the local administration. “Eleven explosions rang out in Berdyansk. There are fires and detonations near the airport,” it said in a Telegram post.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in Zaporizhzhia, claimed the blasts were caused by Russian air defences repelling an “enemy attack”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has ordered top military commanders to strengthen Ukraine’s northern military sector following the arrival of Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in Belarus.
The president said government and military leaders had also heard a report from Ukrainian intelligence and security forces on the situation in Belarus, Ukraine’s northern neighbour.
It comes after up to 5,000 of Prigozhin’s Wagner fighters were said to be joining him in the country, where dictator and Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko offered the use of an abandoned military camp. A Ukrainian government official told The Economist the troops “could be used on diversionary missions” – although a military-intelligence source told the outlet that another Russian invasion from the north was unlikely.
(With inputs from agencies)
