Threat to Ukrainian nuclear power plant grows as fighting rages

Russia, trying to pin down Ukrainian forces to blunt a counter-offensive in Kherson, fired shells near a nuclear power plant it occupies.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — The main front of the Russian military attack on Ukraine appears to have shifted dangerously south of the country, risking catastrophe in Europe's largest nuclear power plant and setting up a possible make-or-break fight for an important regional capital seized by Russia at the start of its invasion.

Originally focused in the north around the capital, Kyiv, then escalating into a brutal brawl in the east involving months of artillery duels that cost thousands of lives on both sides, the war entered a new phase, which each side hopes, decisive.

With the c battles raging around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, aro 100 kilometers downstream from the nuclear power plant on the Dnipro River, the south is now where Russia and the Ukraine are concentrating their firepower - and their hopes of avoiding a stalemate that could last for years.

Over the weekend, Russia used the territory around of the nuclear power plant, which it seized from Ukraine in March, as a staging ground for attacks on Ukrainian positions. It unleashed a barrage of howitzer fire on the nearby Ukrainian town of Nikopol, local officials said.

Intensified fighting around the power station, which sent residents fleeing and alarming of a radiation hazard far beyond Ukraine, came as Russian forces in Kherson were surrounded by the Ukrainian military.

ImageThe Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on the Dnipro River is occupied by Russian forces.Credit...David Guttenfelder for the New York Times

The precarious position of Russian troops in Kherson, who were largely cut off from their main source of supply after Ukraine destroyed the last of four bridges over the Dnipro, has led to speculation about their fate.

Some rap Ports released on Saturday indicated that Russian commanders had already withdrawn from the city. A regional lawmaker, Serhiy Khlan, told Ukrainian television on Sunday that Russia was moving its command center from Kherson across the Dnipro to safer territory on the eastern bank. sources, however, said they saw no evidence that Russian commanders were withdrawing. Analysts have warned that Ukrainian politicians have an interest in exaggerating Russia's problems to rally morale and demoralize Russian troops.

But Russian forces in Kherson are clearly facing difficulties now that their supply lines have been compromised. And Mr Khlan said the only way for them to now reach territory firmly held by Russia on the east bank of the Dnipro was to use pontoon bridges or to cross on foot, without their equipment, on bridges seriously damaged.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">An all-out offensive on Kherson, long threatened by Ukraine but so far limited to attacks on nearby villages and warnings to Russian troops there are stationed, has made Moscow particularly keen to cling to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant up the Dnipro River in the northeast.

Its goal is to corner Ukrainian troops and to prevent them from joining any battle for Kherson, the first major city seized by Russia at the start of the war, and shells fired from the direction of the nuclear facility rained down on a small nearby town held by the Ukraine through a reservoir r on the Dnipro.