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International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will lead an inspection of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned at the weekend that the situation at the plant remains dangerous, even after two power units were reconnected to the energy grid following an outage. Several strikes were reported near the site in recent days.
On the Ground
The city of Energodar near the Zaporizhzhia plant was shelled late Sunday, according to Ukrainska Pravda news site, which also reported that Russia hit the city of Sarny in Ukraine’s western Rivne region with missiles, striking a military infrastructure target. Russia struck Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv again, the regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram, while in Donbas several Russian attempts to conduct assaults in the vicinity of Slovyansk, Bakhmut and Avdiivka were unsuccessful, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook.
Three commercial vessels carrying 72,985 metric tons of grain and food products were authorized to leave Ukraine on Monday, the Joint Coordination Centre said in an emailed statement. They are destined for Turkey, Romania and Egypt.
Zelenskiy Sacks Deputy National Guard Commander
The president dismissed Yaroslav Spodar as deputy commander of Ukraine’s National Guard, according to the Ukrinform site, which said that a decree notifying of the dismissal was published on the presidential website Sunday. It didn’t give any reason for the action.
Germany’s economy ministry said gas-storage facilities are filling up faster than planned despite uncertainty over supplies through a key pipeline from Russia, and predicted that an October target of 85% capacity should already be reached early next month.
Germany has reduced its dependence on Russian gas from 55% before the war to about 30% now, and is moving to find alternative sources while filling storage facilities ahead of the winter.
