1 of 5 | Ukraine's state energy company Energoatom says two employees at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have been kidnapped by Russian forces. Additionally, the company claims that Russia has placed rocket launchers at the facility. Photo by IAEA Press Office/UPI |
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Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Two employees of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have been abducted by Russian forces, Ukraine's state power company Energoatom said Friday.
"Yesterday, December 8, 2022, the Russian military broke into the premises where the ZNPP's Department of Social Programs is located and, in the presence of other employees, severely beat the head of the department, Oleksii Trubenkov, and his deputy, Yurii Androsov. After a severe beating, the invaders took them out of the premises and drove them away to an unknown destination," the Energoatom press office said in a Telegram post on Friday.
"Through such actions, the occupiers are trying to gain loyalty from the courageous pro-Ukrainian staff," the statement continued. "Nevertheless the invaders fail to do so because the personnel resist."
Additionally, Energoatom said Russian forces have placed rocket launchers at the nuclear facility "violating all conditions for nuclear and radiation safety."
Russian forces continued to clash with the Ukrainian military around the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka Friday, with regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko saying Russia shelled "the entire front line" in the Donetsk region. Four civilians were killed and two injured in the Donetsk region over the previous day, according to Kyrylenko.
"The Russians have intensified their efforts in Donetsk and Luhansk. They are now in a very active phase of attempting to conduct offensive operations. We are advancing nowhere but, rather, defending, destroying the enemy's infantry and equipment wherever it tries to advance," Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a video message.
Zambian Foreign Affairs Minister Stanley Kakubo said on Friday that a 23-year-old student who died in Ukraine, Lemekhani Nyirenda, had been pardoned for a drug offense and released from a Russian prison in exchange for fighting.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and Kremlin-ally known as "Putin's Chef," confirmed that Nyirenda was fighting in his Wagner private military force.
In an intelligence update posted to Twitter on Friday the British Ministry of Defense claimed the Russian military has likely resupplied its stock of Iranian Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 drones after running out of the previous batch.
"For the first time in three weeks, there have been reports of attacks by Iranian-provided one-way attack (OWA) uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). These events remain to be verified, but it is likely that Russia exhausted its previous stock of several hundred Shahed-131s and 136s and has now received a resupply," read the update.
