We ended Thursday night watching the Russians shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukrainian authorities said everything was secured.
Then we wake up to the news that Russian troops control Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Live streams:
Sky News journalist Stuart Ramsay and his team came under fire from Russians in Kyiv:
The five-person team had been doing a segment on civilian casualties on Monday when they were ambushed by what Ramsay called Russian “saboteurs” behind Ukrainian lines.Recounting the moments that led up the assault, Mr Ramsay wrote: “Pointing weapons into our car, the last Ukrainian checkpoint suggested we shouldn’t go any further. We elected to call it a day and return to the centre of the city.“The roads we had taken were now unsafe. Well, worse than that, really: they were instantaneously new front lines.”Believing they were mistakenly being fired on by Ukrainian checkpoint guards, they shouted out that they were journalists, “but the rounds kept coming”.“Bullets cascaded through the whole of the car, tracers, bullet flashes, windscreen glass, plastic seats, the steering wheel, and dashboard had disintegrated,” Ramsay wrote. “I do recall wondering if my death was going to be painful.”They managed to film the encounter on the phones and can be heard using expletives as they duck for cover.
Soon it will be gone.
WOW.
Yes, the Biden administration is sending VP Kamala Harris to Poland. Has she ever made anything better? Has she done anything?!
Earlier in the day, Russia banned foreign media outlets like the BBC and VOA for spreading disinformation.
Are we, Blinken? I am not an interventionist but whatever you’re doing is not working. Haven’t we learned dictators don’t talk or respect diplomacy:
Washington is committed to doing every needed to stop the war in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said as he went into a meeting with his EU counterparts praising the bloc for the “historic” steps it has taken against Russia.”We are faced together with what is President Putin’s war of choice: unprovoked, unjustified, and a war that is having horrific, horrific consequences for real people. For mothers, fathers. For children. We see the images on TV, and it has to stop,” he told reporters in Brussels.”We’re committed to doing everything we can to to make it stop. So the coordination between us is vital,” he added, standing alongside the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.He said that beyond the risk for Ukrainians, Russia’s invasion has also put at risk fundamental principles established after two world wars that are important to keeping peace and security, “principles that President Putin is egregiously violating every single day”.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed in a press conference from Vienna, Austria, that a training facility building at the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant in Ukraine was hit by a Russian projectile and Ukrainian fire fighters extinguished the ensuing fire.“We are fortunate there was no release of radiation and the integrity of the reactors was not compromised,” Gross said in the press conference, but said it’s time for “action. “We need to do something about this.”He said he wants to head to Chernobyl for a meeting so that both sides of the conflict can agree to a framework to avoid attacking nuclear power plants in the future.“We are ready to move,” he said of the IAEA.He said that two security people at the plant were injured in the attack.”I think we should not wait for something like this to happen” again, he added.
Are you, though? Are you truly ready, NATO? Or are you just going to put more troops on NATO’s borders? Looks like the latter:
Nato is “ready for a conflict” if needed, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned.Speaking in Brussels alongside the Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Mr Blinken said: “Nato is a defensive alliance. We don’t want conflict. But if the conflict comes to us, we are ready for it.”We will protect every inch of Nato territory”.Overnight, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine was seized by Russian forces after it came under attack earlier in the night.The plant was targeted by Russian rockets and gunfire on Thursday, causing a fire onsite and worries over radiation levels. Ukraine’s president called the attack an act of “nuclear terrorism”.
From The Telegraph:
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Energodar has reportedly been seized by Russian forces after it came under attack earlier in the night.The plant was targeted by Russian rockets and gunfire on Thursday, causing a fire onsite and worries over radiation levels.Citing Ukrainian officials, Reuters is reporting it is now under Russian control.The plant is Europe’s largest for nuclear power and accounts for 25 percent of Ukraine’s electricity.
Staff at the power plant told the media and government that the Russian troop want to use the nuclear power plant to blackmail Europe:
“They will be trying to mine the nuclear power plant and blackmail the whole of Europe,” Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) employees wrote in the message early Friday morning as Russian troops attacked the plant, setting it on fire. Misha Gannytskyi, director general of the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News (UNIAN), provided Fox News this translation early Friday morning.”Kadyrovtsy attacked the power plant,” another message reads. “Currently there is a battle between them and the National Guard of Ukraine. This is Kadyrovtsy group for sure.” UNIAN also published the message.”Kadyrovtsy” refers to soldiers that look like the forces of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, Gannytskyi said. Many Chechens are fighting in Putin’s army.Gannytskyi told Fox News Digital that Ukrainian officials fear that the Russians “can use this fact that they control the nuclear power plant to organize pressure on Ukraine, they can use that station like a big hostage.” The workers warned “that they are putting explosive materials near the buildings of the nuclear plant to provide pressure on the Ukrainian army, people.”
Rumor has it that Putin will impose martial law on Friday. A lot of Russians fled the country on Thursday:
Fears are growing in Russia that President Vladimir Putin may impose martial law, as he moves his beleaguered economy and restive population on to a full war footing.The Kremlin, which has already been arresting anti-war protesters and shutting down liberal media, has now called an extraordinary session of Parliament for Friday (Saturday AEDT) that could authorise emergency powers.Media reports suggest thousands of Russians are trying to flee the country, as any declaration of martial law could shut the borders and prevent people leaving.Tatiana Stanovaya, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, is one of those suggesting martial law would be Mr Putin’s “logical response” to the crisis gripping the country as sanctions bite and the invasion of Ukraine takes its toll on his authority.“The proclamation of martial law will allow the authorities to introduce military censorship; to increase the secrecy of the state’s activities … to ban all rallies and meetings; [and] to ban the work of public, international and foreign organisations that undermine the security of the country,” she said.
Use your brains, people. Just don’t.
In case it gets deleted.
Ukrainian authorities say the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is now secured, AFP reports.A fire broke out at the major plant when it came under fire from Russian forces,The director of the plant, Oleksandr Starukh, said “the nuclear safety is now guaranteed.”
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