Shelling kills civilians and pummels area near nuke plant
Shelling killed civilians, damaged residential buildings and knocked out power lines in nine regions of Ukraine on Thursday, the country’s presidential office said.
At least four people were killed and 10 more were injured in 24 hours as explosions rocked cities, officials said, including the frequently targeted Mykolaiv and Nikopol, which is close to Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Shelling killed five civilians and wounded six others in the eastern city of Donetsk, Russian-backed local authorities said. The separatist officials blamed Ukrainian forces for the shelling, which Ukrainian officials denied.
Mandatory evacuations in the Donetsk province began Wednesday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram, as the first evacuation train arrived in Kropyvnytskyi.
About 50 residential buildings were damaged by Russian rockets in Nikopol, located across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was occupied by Russian troops early in the war. The projectiles also hit power lines, leaving residents without electricity, Ukrainian officials said.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Associated Press this week the power plant is “completely out of control” and urged Russia and Ukraine to allow experts in to assess the situation.
“Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated,” Grossi said. “What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.”
Rare near-unanimity support in Senate NATO vote
In an evenly split and polarized U.S. Senate where so much legislation goes to die, near-unanimous support for any measure is reason for astonishment and even celebration.
And indeed, the often-antagonistic parties were cheerful Wednesday evening after a 95-1 vote in favor of supporting the NATO memberships of Sweden and Finland, two Nordic countries that had remained militarily non-aligned for decades until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed their stance.
“This historic vote sends an important signal of the sustained, bipartisan U.S. commitment to NATO, and to ensuring our Alliance is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Frequent foil Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, referenced Sweden and Finland’s well-funded, modernizing militaries and their experience working with U.S. forces and weapons systems in calling their inclusion into NATO a “slam-dunk for (U.S.) national security.”
McConnell, a longtime NATO supporter, had gone as far as assuring Finnish president Sauli Niinisto that the Senate would promptly ratify Finland’s membership in encouraging him to apply, even though the Kentucky Republican no longer heads the majority in the upper chamber.
McConnell pressed his caucus for strong support – only Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri voted no – emphasizing that the U.S. playing a leadership role globally “is not just important militarily, but commercially as well, all of which is good for this country. This is not a charity we’re involved in here. This is for the benefit of America.”