If the Russians announced with great fanfare the capture of the city of Bakhmout this weekend, President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Sunday evening that the city had not fallen into Russian hands, despite some lost positions.
As the G7 draws to a close, the Ukrainian president left without talking to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The latter said he was “upset” on Monday not to have met his Ukrainian counterpart one-on-one, while Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not scheduled for the summit, met some of his allies, including Emmanuel Macron or Rishi Sunak.
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant again cut off from the electricity grid
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russian army since the beginning of the war in southern Ukraine, has been cut off from the Ukrainian electricity network again, the Russian occupation administration said on Monday, a potentially serious incident. dangerous and became frequent with the bombings linked to the combats.
“Due to the cutting of a high voltage line […] the Power Plant has lost its external electricity supply”, the Russian administration indicated on Telegram, adding that the causes of the cut of this power line were being established and specifying that the emergency diesel generators of the site had been engaged to ensure its operation.
Zelensky denies the capture of Bakhmout claimed by Russia
The Ukrainian army claims to be carrying out counter-attacks in the devastated city of Bakhmout, whose President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied the capture claimed by Russia. The leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner Evgueni Prigojine, whose men are on the front line in the fighting, then the Russian Ministry of Defense assured on Saturday that it had “totally liberated” Bakhmout, a mining town in eastern Ukraine and epicenter of the longest and deadliest battle of the war that began in February 2022.
But Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in Japan for a G7 summit, assured Sunday that the city “is not occupied” by Russian troops, after a series of ambiguous statements on the situation there. “There is nothing in this place […] just ruins and a lot of dead Russians,” he said, seeming to suggest that Bakhmut would be just a Pyrrhic victory for the Russians. The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandre Syrsky, told him that his troops now controlled only an “insignificant” part of Bakhmout, while “continuing to advance” on the flanks north and south of the city.
In addition, violent clashes took place in other towns and villages in the east, including Marïnka and Avdiïvka, in the Donetsk oblast, according to a statement from the Ukrainian general staff, which specifies that the Russians have carried out four missile strikes and 45 airstrikes on Sunday.
Lula says he is “upset” not to have met Zelensky at the G7
Volodymyr Zelensky, who obtained new promises of military equipment as well as diplomatic support from the G7 countries in Hiroshima, Japan, had asked to speak directly with his Brazilian counterpart, very reluctant to condemn the Russian invasion. But the two leaders did not succeed because of their respective overloaded agendas, they justified. A missed meeting which, according to Volodymyr Zelensky, probably left the Brazilian president “disappointed”.
“I was not disappointed,” Lula told him Monday at a press conference before leaving Japan. “I was upset, because I would like to meet him and discuss the subject,” he continued. “But Mr. Zelensky is a great person. He knows what he’s doing.” Lula, however, said he saw no point in meeting Volodymyr Zelensky immediately, believing that neither he nor Vladimir Putin wanted peace. “For the moment, they are both convinced that they will win the war”, he justified.
Unlike several Western powers, Brazil has never imposed financial sanctions on Russia or agreed to supply ammunition to Kiev and is trying to position itself, like China and Indonesia, as a mediator. Lula sparked controversy when he said last month in Beijing that the United States should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine and that the European Union should “start talking about peace”.