After weeks of shelling, the operator completely shut down the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, Ukraine is recapturing important cities in the north-east. The Russian military administration is urging everyone to leave Kharkiv. You can find all the latest news about the war in Ukraine in the ticker.
11:52 a.m .: According to US experts, the Ukrainian soldiers have regained more territory within five days than the Russian troops have occupied since April. “The liberation of Izyum will be Ukraine’s greatest military success since the victory in the Battle of Kyiv in March,” said the Institute for the Study of the War (ISW) in its analysis of the situation on Sunday. As a result, Russia’s planned advance on the Donbass from the north failed, the experts said.
Meanwhile, after the rapid advance of the Ukrainian military in the north-east of the country, not all Russian troops managed to retreat, according to information from Kyiv. “In the Kharkiv area, enemy units from the 3rd Motorized Rifle Division of the 20th Army are cut off from the supply routes and are in a panic,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in its situation report on Sunday. In addition, the losses on the Russian side were high, with 400 dead in one day. The information has not been independently verified.
08:37: After the withdrawal of Russian troops from several occupied Ukrainian towns, fighting in the area continues, according to British military experts. This emerges from the intelligence update from the Ministry of Defense in London on the Ukraine war on Sunday. “In the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have continued to make significant advances in the Kharkiv region,” the statement said on Twitter. Russia has withdrawn units from the area, “but fighting continues around the strategically important cities of Kupyansk and Izyum.”
8:21 a.m .: According to Ukrainian information, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has been completely disconnected from the power grid and is being shut down. “It was decided to put reactor block number six in the safest state – the cold state,” said the Ukrainian nuclear agency Enerhoatom on its Telegram channel on Sunday. The nuclear power plant has been under fire for weeks. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the escalation of the situation around the nuclear facility.
According to Enerhoatom, the nuclear power plant has been operating in “island mode” for the last three days, which means that it only produces electricity for its own use, because all connection lines to the Ukrainian power grid have been interrupted by the shelling. On Saturday evening, a line to the power grid was restored. As a result, it was decided to supply the nuclear power plant via this line and to shut down the last functioning reactor block and cool it down to a safe cold state.
Already in August there was an emergency shutdown of the power plant. This was preceded by a shelling of the plant, for which both warring parties blame each other. The information cannot be verified independently.
9:47 p.m .: As part of its counter-offensive, according to President Volodymyr Selenskyj, the Ukrainian army has recaptured around 2000 square kilometers in the past ten days in areas previously occupied by Russia.
In his video speech on Saturday evening, Zelenskyy thanked all the soldiers who were involved in the recaptures in the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine. Earlier in the day, Russia’s military announced a withdrawal from the region. The Russian army made a good decision by fleeing, said the Ukrainian head of state: “Occupiers have no place in Ukraine and will not have one.”
8:03 p.m .: According to its own statements, Ukraine destroyed parts of the Russian air force worth 155 million euros within three days. This was reported by the Ukrainian Air Force Command. The command also states that, among other things, six Ch-101 cruise missiles, two Ch-59 airborne standoff weapons, two Kamov Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters, one Mi-24 attack helicopter, two Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft and ten Orlan-10 reconnaissance drones were destroyed be.
7:25 p.m .: The Russian front is collapsing – the Ukrainian military has now recaptured an area of more than 1000 square kilometers in the east of the country. More than half a year after the start of the Russian war of aggression, Ukraine claimed to have reconquered the strategically important city of Kupyansk in the eastern region of Kharkiv. As a railway junction, it is particularly important for Russian logistics.
The spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said in Moscow on Saturday that soldiers should be withdrawn from the strategically important city of Izyum – which, according to Ukrainian information, was also recaptured.
Later, the military governor of the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, Serhiy Hajday, reported that their own troops were also advancing there and had already advanced to the outskirts of Lysychansk. Lysychansk was the last major city in the Luhansk region to be conquered by the Russian army in July.
6:02 p.m .: After the announcement of the troop withdrawal, the Russian occupiers in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv called on all residents of the places they had previously controlled to flee. “I once again recommend all residents of the Kharkiv region to leave the region to protect their lives and health,” said the head of the Russian military administration, Vitaly Gantchev, on Saturday, according to the TASS agency. “Staying in his house now is dangerous.”
Shortly before, Moscow had announced that under pressure from the recently launched Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russia was withdrawing its own troops from the strategically important city of Izyum, among other places.
4:45 p.m .: Under pressure from Ukrainian counter-offensives, Russia has announced that it is moving troops to eastern Ukraine. Soldiers should be withdrawn from the Kharkiv region, for example from the strategically important city of Izyum, said a spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Moscow on Saturday.
The spokesman called the withdrawal a “regrouping”. The Ukrainian side had previously reported successful recaptures in the Kharkiv region.
4:29 p.m .: German weapons are said to play a decisive role in the Ukrainian offensive against the Russian army in the south and east of the country. The military successes of the last few days are due on the one hand to American anti-radar missiles, but also to the German “Gepard” anti-aircraft tanks, the “Economist” quotes from circles of the Ukrainian secret service.
As a result, the Russians lost track of the battlefield and were unprepared for surprises from the Ukrainians. The Russian army lost its supremacy in the air due to the Cheetah tanks. “They are blind and we see everything,” an intelligence source told The Economist.
3:34 p.m .: According to reports, Ukrainian troops have already reached the occupied city of Lysychansk. The Ukrainians are said to have already recaptured the oil refinery. The Russian front is also threatening to collapse in the Luhansk region.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai stated that Ukraine has a base in Luhansk and is trying to break the Russian occupation of Lysychansk.
3:08 p.m .: After the Ukrainian soldiers have recaptured various cities in the Kharkiv region in the east of the country, the troops are also to advance in the south of the country. In some regions they are said to have advanced dozens of kilometers into Russian-held areas, a military spokeswoman confirmed on Saturday. This is reported by the AFP news agency.
Earlier, the Russian General Staff reported that 1,300 Chechen soldiers were sent to Kherson to support Russian troops in the occupied parts amid Ukraine’s ongoing counter-offensive.
12:25 p.m .: Various Russian Telegram channels apparently confirm that Russian troops are withdrawing from the city of Izium. This is reported by the portal “Ukrajinska Pravda” and the “Kyiv Independent”, among others. The city of 50,000 is located in the currently highly competitive Kharkiv Oblast.
The Russian army is also said to have withdrawn from the city of Lyman, also in Kharkiv Oblast. The Russian front in north-eastern Ukraine is about to collapse.
Saturday, September 10, 11:17 a.m.: More than six months after the start of the Russian war of aggression, the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the eastern region of Kharkov apparently continues to gain momentum. Ukrainian media published a photo on Saturday morning that is said to show several soldiers with a Ukrainian flag in the center of the strategically important city of Kupyansk, which has so far been occupied by Russian troops. The Ukrajinska Pravda portal, citing members of the regional and local government, wrote: “The Ukrainian armed forces have liberated Kupyansk.” There was initially no official confirmation from the General Staff.
Because of its direct rail connection to Russia, the small town of Kupjansk is important as a transport hub for supplying the entire Russian troop formation around Izyum in the south-west. As a result of the Ukrainian advance, more than 10,000 Russian soldiers are now threatened with encirclement. Information in social networks that the Russians had already fled Izyum could not be checked at first either.
7.41 p.m .: In view of an ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive, the Russian occupiers say they are evacuating other places in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. First, the towns of Izyum and Kupyansk are to be evacuated, as the head of the military administration deployed by Russia, Vitaly Gantchev, said on Friday, according to the state news agency TASS. The town of Welykyj Burluk is also under fire, where the civilian population is also to be taken to safe places. The Russians had already reported on the evacuation of Kupyansk on Thursday.
After more than half a year of war, the Ukrainian troops recently pushed deep into the rear of the Russian occupying forces in their counter-offensive in the east of the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had confirmed on Thursday evening that the district town of Balaklija in the Kharkiv region had been recaptured.
Advances continue to target the city of Kupyansk, which is crossed by several railway and road lines. The small town is therefore considered strategically important for the supply of Russian troops marching towards the Donbass in the north. There are also Ukrainian counterattacks in the Kherson region in the south.
“The situation is intolerable and it is becoming more and more precarious,” said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in Vienna. He again called for the cessation of all hostilities and the establishment of a demilitarized zone to prevent a nuclear accident at the nuclear power plant.
The Ukrainian power plant operator is now considering shutting down the last of the six reactor blocks that are still in operation in the large nuclear power plant, Grossi said. Because of the increasing fighting in the area, it is unlikely that the power supply to the nuclear power plant can be restored. Since there is no running water or electricity in Enerhodar, there is also a great risk that there will soon not be enough Ukrainian personnel to operate the plant safely, Grossi warned.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
