Engineers working to restore power in region which has seen gains by Ukrainian forces
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, discussed the security situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
Speaking by phone, the two leaders expressed readiness for a “non-politicised interaction” on the matter with the participation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the statement published on the Kremlin’s website.
Reuters has some more detail on the news that France is to sign an agreement with Romania (see 13.03) to increase Ukrainian grain exports to developing countries, including in the Mediterranean.
“Tomorrow, I will sign an accord with Romania that will allow Ukraine to get even more grains out ... towards Europe and developing countries, notably in the Mediterranean, which need it for food,” the French transport minister, Clément Beaune, told France Inter radio on Sunday, adding that the deal covered exports by land, sea and river.
Reuters reports:
According to a draft agreement of the French-Romanian deal, seen by Reuters, Paris would cooperate in developing a project aimed at increasing efficiency at the port of Galați, equipping border points in northern Romania.
It would also help to build a medium-term strategy on the axes of the corridor between Romania and Ukraine, and provide pilings to optimise ship traffic. France will also provide funding for the initial technical expertise and work with Bucharest to identify financing for the future.
Without citing a source, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on 7 September that only two of 87 ships, carrying 60,000 tonnes of exported grain products as part of an international deal brokered by the United Nations, had gone to poor countries.
The accord to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports took effect in August. Beaune dismissed Putin’s assertion. Quoting UN figures, the British defence ministry also rejected the claim and said that about 30% of grain exported under the deal has been supplied to low- and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Alisa, a 16-year-old art student from Kharkiv, arrived in Hungary in April with her family after fleeing their apartment in the suburb of Saltivka, which came under heavy shelling for weeks on end.
After two days in a Budapest hotel, the family found an elderly Hungarian couple living in the countryside nearby who agreed to host Alisa, her brother and parents. The couple said their Ukrainian guests could stay as long as they needed.
But recently, as the Hungarian government announced massive increases in energy bills for households that use above the national average, the couple made an embarrassed request.
“Back then, they said we could stay until the end of the war, but now they’ve realised they can’t afford the energy bills. They very politely told us we had to leave,” said Alisa, who spent the summer working long shifts in a Hungarian factory, even though she is still a minor.
“It took me two buses and four hours to get there, and the same to get back every day. The work was tiring, taking apart old electronics for hours on end. But at least I got some money which I could help my family with,” she said.
In the six months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the countries that border Ukraine, as well as others all across Europe, have launched an unprecedented effort to help millions of Ukrainian refugees. Governments have funded emergency support programmes, and millions of ordinary citizens have volunteered to provide food, clothing and shelter.
But as an uncertain and potentially costly winter approaches, governments are rolling back support programmes for Ukrainians, while many volunteers who were happy to host a Ukrainian family for a few weeks or months are now realising that the war could go on for years. More and more Ukrainian refugees are finding themselves struggling to make ends meet.
The Ukrainian advance into Russian-occupied territory in the north-east of the country continued on Sunday as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the next three months would be critical in determining the outcome of the war.
In recent days, Ukrainian forces have retaken the key rail hub of Kupiansk and claim to have seized Izium, previously the major base for Russia in Kharkiv province.
“The Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do – showing its back,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday.
Gen Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukrainian forces, said on Sunday that Ukraine had regained control of about 3,000 sq km of territory since the beginning of September. On Saturday night, Zelenskiy gave the figure as 2,000 sq km. The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine has retaken more territory in five days than Russia had taken since April.
Videos from recently recaptured territory illustrate the scale of the rout, showing military hardware and ammunition left behind by fleeing Russians at their former positions. Ukrainian politicians shared morale-boosting videos of the country’s soldiers raising the national flag in various towns and villages.
The counteroffensive in the north-east of the country came as a surprise to Moscow and most military observers, who had been expecting instead the long-promised Ukrainian advance in the southern Kherson region.
France’s transport minister has said he will sign an agreement with Romania to increase Ukrainian grain exports to developing countries including to the Mediterranean.
“Tomorrow, I will sign an accord with Romania that will allow Ukraine to get even more grains out ... towards Europe and developing countries, notably in the Mediterranean, which need it for food,” Clement Beaune told France Inter radio on Sunday, adding that the deal covered exports by land, sea and river.
A backup power line to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) inside Ukraine has been restored, providing it with the external electricity it needs to cool its reactors, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday.
“After yesterday’s restoration of [the] power line ... #ZNPP operator this morning shut down its last operating reactor, which over past week had been providing ZNPP w/ required power after it was disconnected from grid,” the IAEA said on Twitter.
“This power can now come from the grid instead.”
A back-up power line to Ukraine’s #Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (#ZNPP) has been restored, providing the plant with the external electricity it needs for reactor cooling and other safety functions.
— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency (@iaeaorg) September 11, 2022
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine has recaptured 770 sq miles of territory so far this month in a series of offensives.
“The movement of our soldiers in different directions of the front continues,” the Ukrainian president said in an address late on Saturday.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s armed forces have retaken about 2,000 sq km (770 sq miles) of territory from Russian forces since their surprise north-eastern counteroffensive was launched earlier this month.
In his Saturday night address, the Ukrainian president said: “These days, the Russian army is showing its best – showing its back. And, in the end, it is a good choice for them to run away. There is and will be no place for the occupiers in Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy spoke after the Russian army was forced to pull back thousands of troops following a series of crucial battlefield defeats in the north-east, as the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin entered its 200th day.
Ukrainian forces confirmed the liberation of the crucial rail hub of Kupiansk and shortly after seized Izium, the major base for Moscow’s forces in the Kharkiv region, in what was perhaps Ukraine’s most significant success in pushing back the Russians since the beginning of the invasion.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said in Kyiv that Ukrainian forces had demonstrated they were capable of defeating the Russian army with the weapons given to them. “And so I reiterate: the more weapons we receive, the faster we will win, and the faster this war will end,” he said.
Ukrainian troops had also liberated the villages of Vasylenkovo and Artemivka in the Kharkiv region, Zelenskiy said.
The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station has been shut down and the plant “completely stopped”, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator has said.
The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant was disconnected from the grid last week after all its power lines were disconnected as a result of fighting in the area, and was operating in “island mode” for several days, generating electricity for crucial cooling systems from its only remaining reactor in operation.
Energoatom, the state-run operator of all four of Ukraine’s nuclear power stations, said one of the power lines was restored on Saturday night, allowing plant operators to shut down the last reactor.
“A decision was made to shut down power unit No 6 and transfer it to the safest state – cold shutdown,” the operator said.
Electricity supply to the plant has been cut with increasing frequency over the past few weeks, including at least three times last week.
Volunteers at a railway station in Lviv in western Ukraine are doing all they can to help refugees flee the violence of Putin’s invasion and reach safety.
Lviv is less than 50 miles from the Polish border and thousands of people have been arriving daily from the rest of country.
The Guardian spent the day with one volunteer named Sergyi Mykolaiv.