Ukraine recaptures some villages and moves east
Victory on the South Kherson Front
Putin announces that he has received the right to operate a nuclear power plant
Ukraine refutes ‘action in our system’
▲ Ukrainian soldiers sit in armored vehicles after recapturing the districts of Izium and Lehman on the 4th (local time). The next day, Ukrainian forces recaptured villages in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast.
News Donetsk AP Yonhap
Ukraine’s first move into Donbas-Luhansk Oblast, where Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his interest in its territory. By pushing out the Russian occupation forces, they recaptured part of Luhansk, and are literally moving forward.
According to CNN and other sources on the 5th (local time), Ukrainian governor Serhi Haidai of Luhansk Oblast said that “the eviction of Luhansk has begun” and that “Ukrainian flags have been raised in six liberated villages.” The area recaptured by Ukrainian forces is called Hrekiuka, which is 50 km and 30 km from the strategic strategic points of Lisichansk, Luhansk Oblast and Riemann, Donetsk Oblast, respectively.
The Ukraine also has a victory on the southern front of Kherson. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on the same day that he had “liberated three additional cities in Kherson: Novovoskresenske, Novohrihorivka and Petro Pavliuka.”
The Russian military launched a suicide drone strike in the capital Kiiu on the same day. The Governor of Kiiu, Olegsi Kuleva, said in a telegram on the same day that six suicide drones attacked Villacherkhba, 80 km south of Kiiu, and one person was injured.
In the West, there are even predictions that Ukraine will be able to regain Crimea, which it lost in 2014, thanks to the momentum that turned the tide. The Telegraph quoted a high-ranking US military official on the same day as saying, “Ukraine’s return of Crimea is now a distinct possibility that cannot be ignored.”
President Putin announced on the same day that he would nationalize Ukraine’s Zaporiza nuclear power plant as a Russian asset, promising to stabilize the annexed region. Following the forced annexation of the four occupied territories, the plan is to take over Europe’s largest Zaporiza nuclear power plant operated by state-owned Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom. Sergei Bershinin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, said, “The Zaporiza nuclear power plant is now part of the Russian Federation, so it must be operated under the supervision of the authorities.” Petro Kotin, president of Energoatom, dismissed it Ukraine, saying, “Yes[gwaith pŵer niwclear Zaporiza]is implemented in the energy system of Ukraine in accordance with the laws of Ukraine.”
The Secretary General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi will visit Moscow and Kyiv this week to discuss safety issues at the Zaporiza nuclear power plant.
The United States is responding seriously to Russia’s growing nuclear threat. The US Department of Health and Human Services announced on the same day that it had spent $290 million (about 410 billion won) to buy NPlate, an acute radiation syndrome (ARS) treatment from the American pharmaceutical company Amgen. The US government said it was “not responding to the war in Ukraine,” but said it was “provided to save lives in the wake of a radiation and nuclear crisis.”
Meanwhile, US intelligence officials believe Ukrainian government organizations are involved in the death of Darya Dugin, the daughter of Putin’s ideological landlord Alexander Dugin, in a car explosion in August, CNN reported.
The source said US intelligence officials were also unaware of the plans for the explosion, and it was unclear whether Ukrainian President Zelensky was aware of the plans in advance.
By Lee Tae-kwon and Yoon Yeon-jeong, staff reporters
