Russian forces have launched an attack on a city that has guarded Europe’s largest nuclear plant. In a video streamed live on Facebook, Victor Buchnyev, adviser to the mayor of Enerhodar, says “hundreds of pieces of equipment, three tanks and a lot of infantry have come to us and now we hear the explosions.”
“Get out of there! Get out of there!” he yells, amid the sound of explosions. The video shows clouds of black smoke billowing from above a barricade that had been created by people in Enerhodar, the city near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, which provides roughly 15 percent of the electricity used in Ukraine.
That barricade is several kilometers from the power plant, workers said, and the power plant itself is defended by the country’s National Guard. Video of the attack Thursday did not show any direct assault on the power plant.
The Russian Defense Ministry had claimed in recent days to have captured the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Enerhodar, although an update on Wednesday from the IAEA stated only that Russian forces had taken control of the territory around the plant and that the power plant was still under the control of the Ukrainian national operator.
Over 2,000 Ukrainians had been killed in the invasion as of Wednesday, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. A statement from the Russian Defense Ministry estimated the number at 2,870. The statement also claimed that 498 Russians have died in the war compared to the estimate of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces which put that number at 5,710.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that Russian forces managed to take control of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to TASS. The Defense Ministry added that Russian forces have destroyed 1,502 Ukrainian military facilities and systems.
