Zelensky Condemns Russian ‘Terror’ After Damage to Nuclear Plant

Fighting continues in the south and the east of Ukraine SERGEY BOBOK AFP
Fighting continues in the south and the east of Ukraine SERGEY BOBOK AFP
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Zelensky Condemns Russian ‘Terror’ After Damage to Nuclear Plant

Fighting continues in the south and the east of Ukraine SERGEY BOBOK AFP
Fighting continues in the south and the east of Ukraine SERGEY BOBOK AFP

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday accused Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "for terror" after the operator of the facility reported major damage at the site.

Energoatom, operator of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country, said Saturday that parts of the facility had been "seriously damaged" by military strikes and one of its reactors was forced to shut down.

Friday's strikes had damaged a station containing nitrogen and oxygen and an auxiliary building, Energoatom said on the Telegram messaging service.

As hostilities raged on in the east and south of Ukraine, pro-Moscow authorities in the Russian-occupied Kherson region reported another assassination attempt on a senior official.

And the head of Amnesty International's Ukraine office announced she had resigned from the organization over the group's publication of a controversial report that accused the country's military of endangering civilians.

Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for the attacks on the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest atomic power complex, AFP reported.

Zelensky, in his nightly address on Saturday, once again accused Moscow of terrorism, saying, "Russian terrorists became the first in the world to use the power plant... for terror."

The European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell condemned the attack "as a serious and irresponsible breach of nuclear safety rules and another example of Russia's disregard for international norms".

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog also expressed alarm. The strikes underline "the very real risk of a nuclear disaster", said Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

An official with the Russian occupying authorities in Kherson was gravely wounded Saturday in an attempted assassination, local Moscow-backed officials said.

Vitaly Gur "is in hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, in a critical state", an unnamed official told Russian state news agency TASS. Gur is the deputy chief of the Kakhovka district, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Kherson city.

This was the latest in a series of reported assassination attempts against officials in Ukrainian regions controlled by Russia.

Although Russia has seized a large swath of the Kherson region and part of nearby Zaporizhzhia in recent months, Ukraine's forces have reclaimed some territory.

In his address Saturday, Zelensky hit out at Amnesty International, comparing the rights group's accusations against Ukraine's military with its silence on Russia's actions.

Referring to the strikes on the Zaporizhzhia plant, he said that although they represented "one of the most dangerous crimes against Ukrainians and all Europeans... for some reason, there's still no report or even just a simple message from Amnesty International about it.

"It's a very eloquent silence, which points out, once more, a manipulative selectivity of this organization," he added.

Amnesty sparked outrage in Ukraine with the report published Thursday that accused the military of endangering civilians by establishing bases in schools and hospitals, and launching counterattacks from heavily populated areas.

The head of Amnesty's Ukraine office quit the organization in protest.

"If you don't live in a country invaded by occupiers who are tearing it to pieces, you probably don't understand what it's like to condemn an army of defenders," Oksana Pokalchuk said on social media late Friday.

"And there are no words in any language that can convey this to someone who has not experienced this pain."

Pokalchuk said she had tried to warn Amnesty's senior leadership that the report was one-sided and failed to properly take into account the Ukrainian position but had been ignored.

Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard expressed regret at her departure and paid tribute to her work. But the organization stands by its report.

On Friday, Ukrainian officials said three grain ships left Ukraine after the first in months sailed on Monday as part of a deal to avert widespread food shortages.



Iran Discloses New Details of Israeli Attempt to Assassinate Heads of Three Govt. Branches

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
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Iran Discloses New Details of Israeli Attempt to Assassinate Heads of Three Govt. Branches

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 

The Fars news agency on Sunday disclosed new details of an assassination attempt that targeted a high-level meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council attended by heads of the three government branches and high-ranking officials during the 12-day war between Tehran and Tel Aviv.

Iran has launched a comprehensive investigation into the assassination attempt, and there is suspicion that an agent was involved, informed sources told the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated news agency.

Fars said that in the attack, “some officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, suffered minor injuries to their legs while leaving the meeting,” and added that they escaped through “an emergency hatch that had been planned in advance.”

The speaker of Iran's parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, were also said to have been in the meeting.

According to Fars, the attack occurred on Monday, June 16, at the lower levels of a secure government facility in western Tehran.

Fars said the attack was modeled after an Israeli plan to assassinate Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, involving the launch of six bombs or missiles aimed at entry and exit points to block evacuation routes and disrupt ventilation.

Following the explosions, power was cut to the targeted floor. However, Iranian officials reportedly managed to escape through a pre-designated emergency hatch.

In an interview last week with Tucker Carlson, the political commentator, Pezeshkian accused Israel of trying to assassinate him but did not admit to having being injured. “They did try, yes... They acted accordingly, but they failed,” he said.

Hours after the Fars news agency published its report, a spokesman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council told the Nour News agency that “the Israeli attack on a secret meeting of the Council at a highly protected site, attended by heads of authorities and senior military and political leaders, set a dangerous precedent and sounded the alarm about the possibility of a security breach and the need to strengthen protection at the highest levels.”

“The attack is a dangerous threat to Iran not only in its timing and location, but also in the fact that it targeted one of the most secret and important meetings of the Iranian state,” the news agency wrote.

Vahid Jalili, the chief for cultural affairs and policy evolution at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the brother of Saeed Jalili, Khamenei’s representative in the Supreme National Security Council, was the first to speak about the attack.

He said the meeting of heads of the government branches on June16 was targeted by Israeli attacks just hours before the missile strike on the broadcasting building.

In a related development, the wife of Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ air force, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran during the 12-day war, said her husband received a phone call from his workplace, and headed there before he was killed.

In an interview with the Jamaran website, affiliated to the Khomeini Foundation, she said “Amir returned home from a ceremony, slept for about half an hour, before receiving the phone call.”

She added, “Our house was attacked after the dawn prayer.”