The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday that the largest nuclear plant in Ukraine, which is surrounded by Russian troops, has lost all external power necessary for crucial safety systems for the second time in five days.

Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, issued the warning in the midst of a flurry of developments regarding Russia's conflict in Ukraine. Russia's top domestic security agency reported that eight people had been detained in connection with the weekend Crimea bridge blast. Ukraine's military command reported that its forces recaptured five settlements in the southern Kherson region, on the western edge of a zone under Russian control.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is Europe's largest nuclear power facility. According to Grossi, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, agency monitors at the plant reported the loss of external power, and backup diesel generators were keeping nuclear safety and security equipment operational.

A nuclear safety and security protection zone around the site is urgently needed, Grossi tweeted. "This repeated loss of #ZNPP's off-site power is a deeply worrying development."


On the social media platform Telegram, Ukraine's state nuclear operator Energoatom reported that a Russian missile attack on the substation "Dniprovska" in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region to the north damaged it, shutting down a crucial communication line to the plant and causing the diesel generators to automatically turn on.

Earlier on Wednesday, the southern operational command of Ukraine reported that its forces had retaken five settlements in the southern Kherson region.

According to Vladislav Nazarov, speaker of the southern command, the villages of Novovasylivka, Novohryhorivka, Nova Kamianka, Tryfonivka, and Chervone in the Beryslav district were retaken as of October 11.

The settlements are located in one of the four recent Russian annexations.

The main bridge connecting Russia and Crimea was bombed on Wednesday, according to Russia's top domestic security agency, and a local official in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia claimed that Russian forces had carried out additional strikes there.


The attack on Saturday that damaged the Kerch Bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, a vital route for supplies and travel whose much-ballyhooed construction under Russian President Vladimir Putin cost billions, was the subject of arrests, according to the Federal Security Service, also known by the Russian acronym FSB. Five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia were also detained.

Four people were killed when a truck carrying explosives blew up as it crossed the bridge, and two sections of one of the two car links also collapsed as a result.

While praising the explosion on the bridge, Ukrainian officials refrained from taking direct responsibility for it.

The suspects allegedly worked on instructions from Ukraine's military intelligence to covertly transport the explosives into Russia and fabricate the necessary paperwork, according to the FSB, the primary KGB successor agency.

It claimed that in a complex plan to covertly deliver the explosives to the target, they were shipped from the Ukrainian port of Odesa to Bulgaria, then shipped to Georgia, driven to Armenia, and then returned to Georgia before being transported to Russia.

Putin responded by directing a barrage of missile strikes on Ukraine, alleging that Ukrainian special services were responsible for the explosion and describing it as "an act of terrorism."

According to municipal council secretary Anatoliy Kurtev, Russia's assault on the Zaporizhzhia region and its namesake city continued on Wednesday, breaking windows and blowing out doors in residential buildings. No casualties were immediately reported, but Kurtev alerted the neighbourhood to the possibility of a follow-up attack.

Near the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Zaporizhzhia has recently been subjected to a number of deadly attacks. It is a portion of a larger region that includes the largest nuclear power plant in Europe that is currently under Russian control and that Moscow claims it illegally annexed. The actual city is still under Ukrainian control.

A strong blast hit the city of Melitopol to the south, in a part of the region under Russian control, sending a car flying into the air, according to mayor Ivan Fedorov. Nothing was known about casualties.


At least 19 people were killed in an attack on Monday alone that the U.N. human rights office called "particularly shocking" and possibly constituted war crimes, which sparked new clashes two days after Russian forces started pounding many regions of Ukraine with additional missiles and drones that could carry weapons.

Air raid sirens wailed throughout Ukraine on Tuesday for the second day in a row, and authorities urged citizens to conserve energy and stockpile water. The attacks disrupted electricity across the nation and shattered the relative calm that had returned to Kyiv, the country's capital, and many other cities removed from the front lines of the conflict.

Volodymyr Vasylenko, a 67-year-old resident of Kyiv, said as workers cleaned up debris from the city's streets and repaired traffic lights, "It brings anger, not fear." "We have grown accustomed to this. And we'll continue the battle.

The Group of Seven industrial power leaders denounced the bombardment and vowed to "stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes." Their commitment disregarded Russian advisories that Western

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, informed the G-7 leaders in a virtual meeting that over the course of two days, Russia had fired over 100 missiles and numerous drones at Ukraine. Despite the fact that he claimed Ukraine shot down many of the Russian projectiles, he pleaded for "more modern and effective" air defence systems.

The first two cutting-edge NASAMs anti-aircraft systems will be shipped to Ukraine in the upcoming weeks, according to plans released by the Pentagon on Tuesday. The systems will offer medium- to long-range missile defence, which Kyiv has long desired.

President Joe Biden "promised to continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defence systems" in a phone call with Zelenskyy on Tuesday, according to the White House.

A "new era" of air defence for Ukraine, according to a tweet from the country's defence minister, has begun with the arrival of four German IRIS-T air defence systems.