Kiev, Ukraine - Russia and Ukraine are increasing their military forces in southern Ukraine amid signs that fighting may intensify soon, a United Nations official said Wednesday after crossing a front line held by the military. Ukrainians to inspect a nuclear power plant seized by Moscow.
"It is obvious that military activity is increasing throughout this region, so all possible measures and precautions must be taken so that the plant is not attacked and can be protected," declared the official, Rafael Mariano Grossi, general director of the
Agency
. International Atomic Energy.
Russian soldiers guard the entrance to the nuclear power plant during a visit by representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday.
Photo Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
A few hours before Grossi spoke, a new round of explosions rocked Melitopol, a Russian-occupied city in the same region as the
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Some Ukrainian officials have said the city is a likely target in a counteroffensive mounted by kyiv to retake ground lost to Moscow after the Russian invasion 13 months ago.
As concerns grew about an upsurge in fighting around the plant, fighting broke out on Wednesday some 170 kilometers to the east, in the town of Bakhmut.
There appears to be little left of the city to save, and given its minimal strategic value and the heavy losses already suffered by Ukrainian forces, some analysts have questioned the wisdom of remaining there.
But Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky
declared this week that his military had no choice but to continue the fight for Bakhmut.
A Ukrainian defeat in this month-long battle would strengthen the position of Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
"If he feels any blood, if he smells that we're weak, he's going to push and push and push," Zelensky said in an interview with
The Associated Press.
Ukrainian soldiers sent to guard Russian positions in the Zaporizhzhia region in January.
Photo Nicole Tung for The New York Times
Zelensky, who visited troops near Bakhmut last week, also said that withdrawing from the city would invite Kiev to national and international calls for unacceptable territorial commitments to end the war, and could undermine the morale of the ukrainians.
"Our society will feel tired," Zelensky said.
"Our society will push me to compromise with them."
Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia seized the nuclear power plant - Europe's largest - more than a year ago and have used artillery stationed there to launch attacks on nearby cities.
For months, Grossi, the UN nuclear official, has warned that the bombardments around the plant - some of which have hit critical equipment - were unprecedented in the history of civil nuclear energy and could cause a nuclear accident
. catastrophic.
On Wednesday, at a press conference during his visit to the plant, he once again expressed his concern.
"There is open talk of offensives and counter-offensives," Grossi declared.
Hoping to maintain the element of surprise, Ukrainian military leaders have kept secret the location of what is expected to be a spring counteroffensive.
In addition to Melitopol, the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine is also being considered as a possible avenue of attack.
Photos of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant under Russian occupation, displayed at the offices of Energoatom, Ukraine's state-owned nuclear power company, in Kiev, Ukraine, on March 21, 2023. (Laetitia Vancon/The New York Times)
But Melitopol is an especially attractive target.
Its recapture would build on the successes of Ukrainian forces late last year, when they recaptured Russian-occupied areas in two nearby regions: Kharkiv and Kherson.
If Ukrainian forces manage to take Melitopol, they will be that much closer to reversing a major Russian military achievement from last year, when Russia seized enough coastal territory to create a land bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it illegally occupied in 2014.
The explosions registered on Wednesday in Melitopol occurred around 5:30 a.m., according to Vladimir Rogov, a pro-Russian occupation official, through the Telegram messaging application.
A train depot was damaged as well as parts of the power grid, he said, adding that there were no casualties.
The city's Ukrainian-in-exile mayor, Ivan Fedorov, also said several loud explosions
had been heard
throughout the city before dawn and smoke billowed from near a train depot.
The Ukrainian government did not immediately comment, but for months Melitopol has been the target of partisan attacks, as well as missile attacks launched from Ukrainian lines tens of kilometers away.
And a Ukrainian lawmaker, Mykyta Poturaev, said Wednesday that the attacks in Melitopol were "part of a preparation operation" ahead of a counter-offensive.
However, these statements could be part of a disinformation campaign.
Last year, Ukrainian officials telegraphed their intention to attack the southern city of Kherson before launching a full-scale counter-offensive in the northeast around Kharkiv.
Only months later they drove the Russian forces out of Kherson.
With neither side showing any sign of coming to the negotiating table, some of Ukraine's allies seemed resigned to a protracted conflict.
In Germany, a parliamentary group on Wednesday approved a spending bill that includes
8 billion euros
- about $8.6 billion - in military aid to Ukraine, which will go over the next decade for weapons, ammunition and supplies to help it fight. defend against Russia.
Boris Pistorius, German defense minister, called the aid package a "very, very important step to demonstrate the seriousness of our long-term commitment to Ukraine in its fight against Putin."
On Monday, the German government handed over 18 Leopard 2 main battle tanks for which the Ukrainian government had long campaigned.
Russia has also been working to shore up its alliances.
On Wednesday, a senior Putin security adviser met with India's prime minister in Delhi to discuss the "mutual interests" of their nations, officials said, as Moscow continued its drive to build stronger alliances with trading partners outside the country. bloc of western countries that help Ukraine to resist the invasion of Russia.
The adviser, Nikolai Patrushev, "discussed issues of bilateral cooperation" with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi,
according to a statement from the Russian Security Council.
Patrushev, secretary of the Council, was in India to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes India and China.
Neither side gave details of the talks, but they came as Moscow seeks to drive a wedge between the West and two countries in particular,
India and China,
which have remained neutral on its decision to seize territory in Ukraine. .
c.2023 The New York Times Company
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