Ukraine: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was taken over by Russian forces last month, has stopped transmitting data to the IAEA, the UN atomic watchdog has said, expressing deep concern for the staff working under Russian troops at the nuclear site in northern Ukraine. The Chernobyl site is not currently operational and handling of nuclear material has been halted. The facility holds decommissioned reactors, as well as radioactive waste facilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said, citing information from Ukraine’s nuclear regulator.
Russian aircraft bombed cities in the country’s eastern and central regions, including the capital Kyiv, overnight. So far, two million civilians — mostly women and children — have fled Ukraine in the wake of the Russian onslaught. Meanwhile, the US has announced a ban on Russian oil imports in retaliation for its war on Ukraine. Indian students from Sumy have reached Lviv and will go to Poland via train. This is the last group of Indians being evacuated from war-torn Ukraine. They will be flown home from Poland in the next couple of days.
Russia has accused the US of launching an economic war against Moscow, with sanctions, over its invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine President Zelenskyy has urged Poland and the US to decide on the logistics of sending fighter jets to Ukraine immediately. Russia will achieve its goal of ensuring Ukraine’s neutral status and would prefer to do that through talks, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is trying to evacuate civilians through six “humanitarian corridors” Wednesday, including from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. She added that Russian armed forces have agreed to hold fire along humanitarian corridors from 9 am to 9 pm local time. In a separate incident, at least 10 people were killed in a Russian military attack in the eastern Ukrainian town of Severodonestk.