FATE OF UKRAINE’S SECOND BIGGEST POWER PLANT IN BALANCE AFTER RUSSIAN ADVANCE
The fate of Ukraine’s second biggest power plant hung in the balance after Russianbacked forces claimed to have captured it intact, but Kyiv did not confirm its seizure, saying only that fighting was underway nearby.
If confirmed, the seizure of the Soviet-era coal-fired Vuhlehirsk power plant in eastern Ukraine would be Moscow’s first strategic gain in more than three weeks in what it calls its “special military operation”.
Russian and Russian-backed forces have been struggling to make meaningful progress on the ground since their capture in early July of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk.
They have been repeatedly pushed back by fierce Ukrainian resistance to what Kyiv and the West regard as an imperialist Russian land grab in a proWestern neighbour that Moscow dominated until the Soviet Union’s 1991 break-up.
Unverified footage posted on social media appeared to show fighters from Russia’s Wagner private military company posing in front of the Vuhlehirsk power plant, which some Russian state media - citing Russian-backed officials - reported separately had been stormed.
One of the Wagner fighters in front of the plant showed his watch to the camera - the time on it was 10:01 local and gave the date as July 26.
Reuters could not immediately verify the veracity of the video or whether the plant had switched to Russian control or not. The same unverified footage showed that working parts of the Soviet-era power plant, which is perched on the shore of a huge reservoir, appeared to be undamaged.
Ukraine did not confirm the power plant’s capture and only said that “hostilities” were underway in two nearby areas.