Russia Requests ‘Explanations’ from IAEA on Zaporizhzhia Report

A motorcade transporting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expert mission arrives at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, September 1, 2022. (Reuters)
A motorcade transporting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expert mission arrives at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, September 1, 2022. (Reuters)
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Russia Requests ‘Explanations’ from IAEA on Zaporizhzhia Report

A motorcade transporting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expert mission arrives at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, September 1, 2022. (Reuters)
A motorcade transporting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expert mission arrives at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, September 1, 2022. (Reuters)

Russia has requested "additional explanations" from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on parts of its report on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

The IAEA on Tuesday called for shelling near the power station to be halted and for a security zone around the plant to be established immediately in a report published after its long-awaited mission to Zaporizhzhia last week.

The plant has been controlled by Russian forces since March but is still operated by Ukrainian staff and connected to the Ukrainian power grid. Both Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of firing missiles at the power station, prompting fears of a Chornobyl-style nuclear disaster.

Lavrov told the Interfax news agency that Moscow required more information about the IAEA's findings and had sent a request to provide extra information.

"There is a need for additional explanations because there are a number of issues in the report. I will not list them now, but we have requested clarifications from the IAEA Director General," Interfax cited Lavrov as saying.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the West of putting pressure on the IAEA mission to the plant.

The RIA Novosti news agency quoted Zakharova as saying Russia had provided full data on the source of shelling to the IAEA and was questioning why the organization did not name Ukraine as the source of attacks on the nuclear power plant in its report.

She also said Ukraine was coordinating its attacks on the facility with the help of the United States and other Western states.

Ukraine denies attacking the plant and has accused Moscow of storing heavy weapons at the nuclear power station, a claim rejected by Russia.



Russia Hits Ukraine’s Kharkiv with Deadly Nighttime Barrage of Drones 

Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian attack that hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP)
Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian attack that hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP)
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Russia Hits Ukraine’s Kharkiv with Deadly Nighttime Barrage of Drones 

Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian attack that hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP)
Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian attack that hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP)

A concentrated, nine-minute-long Russian drone attack on Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv in the middle of the night killed three people and injured 64, including nine children, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

The overnight attack followed Russia's two biggest air assaults of the war on Ukraine this week, part of intensified bombardments that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent attacks in Russia.

Kharkiv, in Ukraine's northeast, withstood Russia's full-scale advance in the early days of the war and has since been a frequent target of drone, missile, and guided aerial bomb assaults.

The intense strikes by 17 drones on Kharkiv sparked fires in 15 units of a five-storey apartment building and caused other damage in the city close to the Russian border, the city's mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

"There are direct hits on multi-storey buildings, private homes, playgrounds, enterprises and public transport," Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app.

"Every new day now brings new despicable blows from Russia, and almost every blow is telling. Russia deserves increased pressure; with literally every blow it strikes against ordinary life, it proves that the pressure is not enough," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram.

A Reuters witness saw emergency rescuers helping to carry people out of damaged buildings and administering care, while firefighters battled blazes in the dark.

Nine of the injured, including a 2-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, have been hospitalized, Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of the broader Kharkiv region, said on Telegram. He added that the strikes also hit a city trolley bus depot and several residential buildings.

In total, the Ukrainian military said Russia had launched 85 drones overnight, 40 of which were shot down.

It said nine were lost - meaning the Ukrainian military used electronic warfare to divert them - or were drone simulators without warheads.

"The main areas of the air strike are Kharkiv, Donetsk and Odesa regions," the military said on Telegram.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched on its smaller neighbor in February 2022. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

"We are holding on. We are helping each other. And we will definitely survive," Terekhov said. "Kharkiv is Ukraine. And it cannot be broken."