The seizure of the Soviet-era coal-fired power plant at Vuhlehirsk in eastern Ukraine would be Moscow’s first strategic gain in more than three weeks in what it calls a “special operation” to demilitarize and “de-nitroze” its neighbor. Rising energy prices and a global wheat shortage threatening millions in poorer countries with starvation are among the far-reaching effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Russia cut gas flows to Europe on Wednesday in an energy standoff with the European Union. read more It has blocked grain exports from Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion, but on Friday agreed to allow deliveries through the Black Sea to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait and to world markets. The deal was almost immediately thrown into doubt when Russia fired cruise missiles at Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port, on Saturday, just 12 hours after the deal was signed. “The day after the (agreement) was signed, the Russian armed forces … attacked Odessa,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters in Warsaw. “It follows that such agreements cannot be considered completely credible, because unfortunately that is the way Russia is.” Before the invasion and subsequent sanctions, Russia and Ukraine accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports. Russian and Russia-backed forces have been struggling to make significant progress on the ground since seizing the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk in early July. They have been repeatedly pushed back by fierce Ukrainian resistance to what Kyiv and the West see as an imperialist Russian land grab in a pro-Western neighbor that Moscow dominated until the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Unverified footage posted on social media appeared to show fighters from the Russian private military company Wagner posing in front of the Vuhlehirsk power plant, which some Russian state media – citing Russian-backed officials – separately said they had stormed. One of Wagner’s fighters in front of the factory showed his watch to the camera – the time on it was 1001 local and gave the date as July 26. Reuters could not immediately verify the video or whether the factory had come under Russian control. The same unverified video showed that the working parts of the Soviet-era power plant, perched on the shore of a huge reservoir, appeared to be undamaged. Ukraine did not confirm the seizure of the power plant and said only that “hostile operations” were underway in two nearby areas. He said on Monday that “enemy units” had made some gains around the plant.
RUSSIAN FAILURE AT KHERSON
British military intelligence said on Wednesday that Wagner fighters had likely made tactical advances in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region around the power plant and the nearby village of Novoluhanske. It said some Ukrainian forces had likely withdrawn from the area. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk province, which is part of Donbas, said at least one person was killed in a Russian attack on a hotel in the town of Bakhmut, which is north of the power plant and targeted by Russian forces. said they want to arrest. “According to initial information, there are dead and injured; a rescue operation is underway,” Kirilenko wrote on Facebook. The local emergency service reported that the toll of one dead and four injured has been confirmed so far. Meanwhile, Russian forces suffered a setback in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region after Ukrainian forces hit a major bridge over the Dnipro River with what a Russian-appointed local administrator said were high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) supplied by USA. Antonivskyi Bridge is the only city in Kherson that spans the river, and Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the city’s Russian administration, told Russia’s RIA news agency that it had been closed to traffic after the strike. He said Russia was ready to compensate for its removal with bridges and ferries. Ukraine has spoken of launching a major counteroffensive in the south of the country to try to retake cities such as Kherson. The bridge’s unusability to Russian forces is seen by Western military analysts as something that would make it much more difficult for Moscow’s forces to operate smooth supply lines and defend the land they have seized since their February 24 invasion. Stremusov, the Russian-appointed official, denied that the fate of the bridge would determine the course of the war in any way. Footage posted on social media showed at least six large holes in its surface. Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak quipped on Twitter that the Antonivskyi Bridge was good at intercepting Ukrainian missiles. “… You can’t escape reality,” he wrote. “The Russian conquerors will have to learn how to swim the Dnipro River. Or they will have to leave the Kherson while it is still possible. There may not be a third warning.” To secure the grain deal, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Wednesday unveiled a center in Istanbul to oversee the export of Ukrainian grain, with the first shipment expected to leave Black Sea ports within days. read more More than 25 million tons of grain were waiting to be exported, he said. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting from the Reuters offices Writing by Andrew Osborn and Nick Macfie Editing by Mark Heinrich and Catherine Evans Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
