Europe’s largest nuclear energy plant on fireplace after shelling

The newest particulars about Russia’s assault on Ukraine:

Fireplace reported at nuclear plant in Enerhodar

8:40 p.m. EST March 3

Russian forces pressed their assault on a vital energy-producing metropolis by shelling Europe’s largest nuclear plant early Friday, sparking a hearth and elevating fears that radiation might leak from the broken energy station.

Plant spokesman Andriy Tuz instructed Ukrainian tv that shells have been falling straight on the Zaporizhzhia plant within the metropolis of Enerhodar and had set fireplace to one of many facility’s six reactors. That reactor is beneath renovation and never working, however there’s nuclear gas inside, he mentioned.

A authorities official instructed The Related Press that elevated ranges of radiation have been detected close to the plant, which supplies about 25% of Ukraine’s energy era. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of the data has not but been publicly launched.

Tuz mentioned firefighters can’t get close to the flames as a result of they’re being shot at. Ukrainian Overseas Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted a plea to the Russians to cease the assault and permit fireplace groups inside.

“We demand that they cease the heavy weapons fireplace,” Tuz mentioned in a video assertion. “There’s a actual menace of nuclear hazard within the greatest atomic vitality station in Europe.”

The assault renewed fears that the invasion might end in injury to considered one of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors and set off one other emergency just like the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe, which occurred about 110 kilometers (65 miles) north of the capital.

The Ukrainian state atomic vitality firm reported {that a} Russian army column was heading towards the nuclear plant. Loud photographs and rocket fireplace have been heard late Thursday.

“Many younger males in athletic garments and armed with Kalashnikovs have come into town. They’re breaking down doorways and making an attempt to get into the residences of native residents,” the assertion from Energoatom mentioned.

Later, a stay streamed safety digital camera linked from the homepage of the Zaporizhzhia plant confirmed what seemed to be armored autos rolling into the power’s parking zone and shining spotlights on the constructing the place the digital camera was mounted.

-Jim Heintz, Yuras Karmanau, and Mstyslav Chernov, The Related Press

Russian troops are shelling a nuclear energy plant in Enerhodar

7:25 p.m. EST March 3

Russian troops have begun shelling Europe’s largest nuclear energy station in Ukraine.

The plant is in Enerhodar, a metropolis on the Dnieper River that accounts for one-quarter of the nation’s energy era. A spokesman for the plant mentioned the shelling started early Friday.

The mayor of Enerhodar mentioned Ukrainian forces have been battling Russian troops on town’s outskirts. Video confirmed flames and black smoke rising above town of greater than 50,000, with individuals streaming previous wrecked automobiles, only a day after the U.N. atomic watchdog company expressed grave concern that the combating might trigger unintentional injury to Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors.

Mayor Dmytro Orlov and the Ukrainian state atomic vitality firm reported {that a} Russian army column was heading towards the nuclear plant. Loud photographs and rocket fireplace have been heard late Thursday.

“Many younger males in athletic garments and armed with Kalashnikovs have come into town. They’re breaking down doorways and making an attempt to get into the residences of native residents,” the assertion from Energoatom mentioned.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal referred to as on the West to shut the skies over the nation’s nuclear crops as combating intensified. “It’s a query of the safety of the entire world!” he mentioned in an announcement.

The U.S. and NATO allies have dominated out making a no-fly zone because the transfer would pit Russian and Western army forces in opposition to one another.

-The Related Press

Main Ukrainian cities nonetheless avoiding Russian management

3:15 p.m. EST March 3

Roughly 170,000 of the 190,000 Russian troops amassed alongside Ukraine’s border two weeks in the past at the moment are within the nation, in response to the Pentagon’s newest evaluation.

Regardless of “heavy bombardment” of northern and japanese Ukrainian cities, a senior U.S. protection official instructed reporters on Thursday, it seems the Russian effort to take the capital metropolis of Kyiv remains to be “largely stalled throughout the north.”

“Air house over Ukraine stays contested, as yesterday,” the official mentioned. “We assess that Ukrainian air and missile protection techniques stay intact and so they stay efficient.”

Regardless of bombing in and round Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv, Russian forces haven’t been in a position to take the cities.

To the south, the official mentioned, the Pentagon can’t affirm whether or not Kherson is beneath Russian management.

“Our evaluation is that Mariupol remains to be beneath Ukrainian management, though we’ve got seen and noticed Russian forces advancing on Mariupol, as I mentioned yesterday, with the intention to isolate town,” he mentioned.

There haven’t been indications to date, he added, that Russian forces will transfer on Odessa “anytime quickly,” although the belief is that they may try and take it both from the Black Sea or on land.

“We can’t affirm experiences of the usage of cluster munitions. We can’t affirm experiences of the presence or use of thermobaric weapons,” the official mentioned. “We nonetheless assess that the convoy that everyone’s been targeted on is stalled, and that we’ve got no cause to doubt Ukrainian claims that they’ve the day have contributed to it being stalled by by attacking it.

–Meghann Myers, Navy Instances

Ukraine says settlement reached for protected corridors to evacuate civilians, ship support

1:20 p.m. EST March 3

A member of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia says the events have reached a tentative settlement to prepare protected corridors for civilians to evacuate and for humanitarian provides to be delivered.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who took half in Thursday’s talks in Belarus close to the Polish border, mentioned that Russia and Ukraine reached a preliminary understanding that cease-fires might be noticed in areas the place the protected corridors are established.

-The Related Press

Zelenskyy asks West for extra army support

1:00 p.m. EST March 3

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take a seat down for talks whereas urging the West to supply a stronger army help to Ukraine to combat the Russian invasion.

In a sarcastic reference to a protracted desk Putin used for his latest conferences with international leaders and Russian officers, Zelenskyy mentioned: “Sit down with me to barter, simply not at 30 meters,” including, “I don’t chunk. What are you afraid of?”

Throughout Thursday’s information convention, Zelenskyy mentioned that prospects for one more spherical of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiations don’t appear promising, however emphasised the necessity to negotiate, including that “any phrases are extra essential than photographs.”

He mentioned the world was too gradual to supply help for Ukraine and prodded Western leaders to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine to disclaim entry to the Russian warplanes. The U.S. and NATO allies have dominated out the transfer that will straight pit Russian and Western militaries.

Zelenskyy charged that if the West stays reluctant to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, it ought to not less than present Kyiv with warplanes.

-The Related Press

Putin claims Russia is providing protected corridors

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Russian army has provided protected corridors to civilians to permit them to go away areas of combating in Ukraine.

Putin, talking in a video name with members of his Safety Council, has charged that Ukrainian nationalist teams are stopping civilians from leaving.

The Russian chief mentioned the teams have been additionally utilizing civilians as shields, taking on firing positions to impress the Russian retaliatory fireplace. Putin’s declare couldn’t be independently verified.

The Russian army says it has solely struck army amenities and haven’t focused residential areas, a declare that has been contradicted by the plentiful proof of large casualties and injury to residential areas of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and different cities in Ukraine documented by The Related Press.

Putin reaffirmed his declare that the Russian army was combating “neo-Nazis,” including that some Ukrainians have been additionally “fooled by nationalist propaganda.”

He hailed the Russian army as heroes and ordered further funds to households of the troopers who have been killed and servicemen who have been wounded in motion.

-The Related Press

Russia is making an attempt to chop off Ukraine from the ocean

8:49 a.m. EST March 3

Russian forces seized a strategic Ukrainian port and besieged one other Thursday in a bid to chop the nation off from the ocean, as the 2 sides headed for one more spherical of talks aimed toward ending the combating that has despatched greater than 1 million individuals fleeing over Ukraine’s borders.

Moscow’s try and rapidly take over the Ukrainian capital has apparently stalled, however the army has made vital good points within the south as a part of efforts to sever the nation’s connection to Black and Azov seas.

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The Russian army mentioned it had management of Kherson, and native Ukrainian officers confirmed that forces have taken over native authorities headquarters within the Black Sea port of 280,000, making it the primary main metropolis to fall since the invasion started every week in the past.

Elsewhere, the Russians pressed their offensive on a number of fronts, although a column of tanks and different autos exterior the capital of Kyiv has made little progress in latest days. Heavy combating continued Thursday on the outskirts of one other strategic port metropolis on the Azov Sea, Mariupol, plunging it into darkness, isolation and concern. Electrical energy and cellphone connections are largely down, and houses and retailers are going through meals and water shortages.

With out cellphone connections, medics didn’t know the place to take the wounded.

In simply seven days of combating, greater than 2% of Ukraine’s inhabitants has been compelled in a foreign country, in response to the tally the U.N. refugee company launched to The Related Press. The mass evacuation could possibly be seen in Kharkiv, a metropolis of about 1.4 million individuals and Ukraine’s second-largest. Residents determined to flee falling shells and bombs crowded town’s prepare station and pressed onto trains, not at all times figuring out the place they have been headed.

No less than 227 civilians have been killed and one other 525 wounded in that point, in response to the most recent figures from the workplace of the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights. It acknowledges that may be a huge undercount, and Ukraine earlier mentioned greater than 2,000 civilians have died. That determine couldn’t be independently verified.

Because the toll of struggle mounted, a second spherical of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations was anticipated later Thursday in neighboring Belarus — although the 2 sides appeared to have little frequent floor.

“We’re able to conduct talks, however we are going to proceed the operation as a result of we received’t enable Ukraine to protect a army infrastructure that threatens Russia,” Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned, repeating an accusation Moscow has repeatedly used to justify its invasion.

Lavrov mentioned that the West has repeatedly armed Ukraine, skilled its troops and constructed up bases there to show Ukraine right into a bulwark in opposition to Russia.

The U.S. and its allies have insisted that NATO is a defensive alliance that doesn’t pose a menace to Russia. And the West fears Russia’s invasion is supposed to overthrow Ukraine’s authorities and set up a pleasant authorities — although Lavrov mentioned Moscow would let the Ukrainians select what authorities they need to have.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier raised the specter of nuclear struggle, placing his nation’s nuclear forces on excessive alert, however his international minister shrugged off questions of whether or not Russia might escalate the battle with nuclear weapons, saying such discuss comes from the West.

In Kherson, the Russians took over the regional administration headquarters, Hennady Lahuta, the governor of the area, mentioned Thursday — whereas including that he and different officers have been persevering with to carry out their duties and supply help to the inhabitants.

Kherson’s mayor, Igor Kolykhaev, beforehand mentioned that the nationwide flag was nonetheless flying, however that there have been no Ukrainian troops within the metropolis. Britain’s protection secretary mentioned it was attainable the Russians had taken over, although not but verified.

The mayor mentioned town would preserve a strict curfew and require pedestrians to stroll in teams no bigger than two, obey instructions to cease and to not “provoke the troops.”

“The flag flying over us is Ukrainian,” he wrote on Fb. “And for it to remain that means, these calls for have to be noticed.”

Earlier Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that Russian land forces have stalled and Moscow is now unleashing air assaults, however that they’re being parried by Ukrainian protection techniques, together with in Kherson.

“Kyiv withstood the evening and one other missile and bomb assault. Our air defenses labored,” he mentioned. “Kherson, Izyum — all the opposite cities that the occupiers hit from the air didn’t hand over something.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko mentioned explosions heard in a single day within the Ukrainian capital have been Russian missiles being shot down by air protection techniques.

From Kherson, Russian troops appeared to roll towards Mykolaiv, one other main Black Sea port and shipbuilding middle to the west alongside the coast. The regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, mentioned that massive convoys of Russian troops are advancing on town however mentioned that they may seemingly must regroup earlier than making an attempt to take it over.

A bunch of Russian amphibious touchdown vessels can be heading towards the port of Odesa, farther west, the Ukrainian army mentioned.

Moscow’s isolation deepened when a lot of the world lined up in opposition to it on the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine. The prosecutor for the Worldwide Legal Court docket opened an investigation into attainable struggle crimes. And in a shocking reversal, the Worldwide Paralympic Committee banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Winter Paralympic Video games.

Whereas Moscow wreaked devastation on Ukrainian cities, international sanctions plunged Russia’s financial system deeper into disaster.

The ruble, which has tanked because the invasion, misplaced an extra 15% in opposition to the greenback whereas the financial system took one other hit when two rankings businesses lower Russia’s credit standing, saying the invasion and Western sanctions have damage Moscow’s potential to repay money owed and raised dangers for the financial system and stability.

Russia reported its army casualties Wednesday for the primary time within the struggle, saying almost 500 of its troops have been killed and nearly 1,600 wounded. Ukraine didn’t disclose its personal army losses.

Ukraine’s army normal employees mentioned in a Fb put up that Russia’s forces had suffered some 9,000 casualties within the combating. It didn’t make clear if that determine included each killed and wounded troopers.

In a video handle to the nation early Thursday, Zelenskyy praised his nation’s resistance.

“We’re a individuals who in every week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,” he mentioned. “They are going to don’t have any peace right here. They are going to don’t have any meals. They are going to have right here not one quiet second.”

He mentioned the combating is taking a toll on the morale of Russian troopers, who “go into grocery shops and attempt to discover one thing to eat.”

“These usually are not warriors of a superpower,” he mentioned. “These are confused youngsters who’ve been used.”

In the meantime, the senior U.S. protection official mentioned an immense Russian column of lots of of tanks and different autos seemed to be stalled roughly 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Kyiv and had made no actual progress within the final couple of days.

The convoy, which earlier within the week had appeared poised to launch an assault on the capital, has been plagued with gas and meals shortages, the official mentioned.

On the far edges of Kyiv, volunteers properly into their 60s manned a checkpoint to attempt to block the Russian advance.

“In my previous age, I needed to take up arms,” mentioned Andrey Goncharuk, 68. He mentioned the fighters wanted extra weapons, however “we’ll kill the enemy and take their weapons.”

Round Ukraine, others crowded into prepare stations, carrying youngsters wrapped in blankets and dragging wheeled suitcases into new lives as refugees.

Among the many million-plus refugees who’ve fled Ukraine in latest days have been some 200 orphans with extreme bodily and psychological disabilities who arrived from Kyiv by prepare in Hungary on Wednesday.

A few of them spent greater than an hour in underground shelters throughout a bombing, mentioned Larissa Leonidovna, the director of the Svyatoshinksy orphanage for boys.

– Jim Heintz. Vladimir Isachenkov reported from Moscow; Yuras Karmanau from Lviv, Ukraine; Mstyslav Chernov in Mariupol, Ukraine. Sergei Grits in Odesa, Ukraine; Francesca Ebel, Josef Federman and Andrew Drake in Kyiv; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Lynn Berry, Robert Burns and Eric Tucker in Washington; Edith M. Lederer and Jennifer Peltz on the United Nations; and different AP journalists from all over the world contributed to this report.

ICC prosecutor launches Ukraine struggle crimes investigation

5:30 a.m. EST March 3

The Worldwide Legal Court docket prosecutor has launched an investigation that might goal senior officers believed accountable for struggle crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity or genocide amid a rising civilian loss of life toll and widespread destruction of property throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan introduced the probe late Wednesday evening after dozens of the court docket’s member states requested him to take motion.

“An investigation by the Worldwide Legal Court docket into Russia’s barbaric acts is urgently wanted and it’s proper that these accountable are held to account,” British Overseas Secretary Liz Truss mentioned. “The U.Okay. will work intently with allies to make sure justice is finished.”

After informing the court docket’s judges of his resolution to open an investigation that covers all sides within the battle, Khan mentioned: “Our work within the assortment of proof has now commenced.”

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service has mentioned that greater than 2,000 civilians have died because the Russian invasion, a declare that was inconceivable to confirm.

There even have been experiences of the use by Russian troops of cluster bombs, with a preschool and a hospital each reportedly hit.

President Vladimir Putin’s “army machine is concentrating on civilians indiscriminately and tearing by means of cities throughout Ukraine,” Truss mentioned.

Rights teams on Thursday welcomed the nations’ request for an investigation.

“The request for an ICC investigation displays the rising alarm amongst international locations in regards to the escalating atrocities and human rights disaster that has gripped Ukraine,” mentioned Balkees Jarrah, interim worldwide justice director at Human Rights Watch. “These governments are making clear that critical crimes is not going to be tolerated and that the court docket has a necessary position to play in guaranteeing justice.”

The court docket already has carried out a preliminary probe into crimes linked to the violent suppression of pro-European protests in Kyiv in 2013-2014 by a pro-Russia Ukrainian administration and allegations of crimes within the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and japanese Ukraine, the place Moscow has backed rebels since 2014. It discovered “a broad vary of conduct constituting struggle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity inside the jurisdiction of the court docket have been dedicated” in Ukraine, Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, mentioned on the time.

These findings additionally might be included in Khan’s investigation.

Putin and his army prime brass might doubtlessly face costs for ordering assaults that breach the legal guidelines of struggle, mentioned Marieke de Hoon, assistant professor of worldwide prison legislation on the College of Amsterdam.

“The ICC is created to bypass Putin’s head of state immunity in international courts,” De Hoon mentioned. “The ICC can now proceed its investigation, open circumstances and difficulty arrest warrants.”

However she additionally famous the ICC can solely put a suspect on trial in The Hague if they’re arrested. The court docket doesn’t have a police drive to detain suspects and depends on worldwide cooperation to implement its arrest warrants. Beneath ICC guidelines, suspects can’t by tried of their absence.

How armies are allowed to behave throughout army conflicts is ruled by what is called worldwide humanitarian legislation, the goal of which is to guard civilians and rein in the usage of drive.

“That implies that a sure class of individuals — so-called combatants, who distinguish themselves from civilians and are engaged within the armed battle — can use drive however solely in opposition to army targets after which solely when these are obligatory, and solely with proportional means,” mentioned De Hoon

To be classed as crimes in opposition to humanity, assaults must be a part of what the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, calls “a widespread or systematic assault directed in opposition to any civilian inhabitants.”

Using munitions akin to cluster bombs additionally seemingly will, if confirmed, qualify as struggle crimes due to their indiscriminate nature.

“It’s inconceivable with these kinds of weapons to differentiate between army targets and civilians,” De Hoon mentioned.

Whereas Khan has now opened an investigation, he most certainly received’t be capable of ship investigators into Ukraine to gather proof and converse to witnesses whereas struggle remains to be raging.

“It’s laborious to research on the bottom now,” De Hoon mentioned. “However there are lots of open supply investigations attainable, utilizing for example satellite tv for pc pictures and social media posts. Different states may share the proof they gather with the ICC.”

The ICC was arrange in 2002 to prosecute struggle crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity and genocide. The crime of aggression, which might’t be investigated in Ukraine as a result of neither Russia nor Ukraine is a member of the court docket, was added later. The ICC is a court docket of final resort, taking up circumstances when nationwide authorities are unwilling or unable to prosecute.

Over the previous 20 years, its prosecutors have filed costs in opposition to army and authorities leaders in a number of international locations, but it surely hasn’t managed to deliver many to justice.

One of many first suspects charged by the court docket was Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord who leads the cult-like Lord’s Resistance Army insurgent group. A global arrest warrant for Kony was issued in 2005 however he stays at giant.

One other excessive profile fugitive is ousted Sudanese chief Omar al-Bashir, who nonetheless hasn’t been handed to the ICC regardless of arrest warrants relationship again to 2009 and 2010 for allegedly ordering atrocities within the Darfur area.

As Khan launched the court docket’s newest investigation, he put combatants and their leaders on discover that he’s watching them.

“With an lively investigation now underway, I repeat my name to all these engaged in hostilities in Ukraine to stick strictly to the relevant guidelines of worldwide humanitarian legislation,” he mentioned. “No particular person within the Ukraine state of affairs has a license to commit crimes inside the jurisdiction of the Worldwide Legal Court docket.”

-Mike Corder, The Related Press