Live: Russia gives up key northeast towns as Ukrainian forces make gains

Issued on: 11/09/2022 – 09:29

9:25am: Russia announces troop pullback from Ukraine’s Kharkiv area

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday that it was pulling back troops from two areas in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week. 

The news came after days of apparent advances by Ukraine south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, in what could become the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since they thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the nearly seven-month war.

“The Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do — showing its back,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video released by his office Saturday night. “And, of course, it’s a good decision for them to run.”

9:24am: Ukraine says final reactor at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant switched off

Ukraine said Sunday the sixth and final reactor at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in the south of the country was no longer generating electricity.

“Today, September 11, 2022, at night, at 03:41 am (0141 GMT), unit No. 6 of the ZNPP was disconnected from the power grid. Preparations are underway for its cooling and transfer to a cold state,” state nuclear agency Energoatom said in statement.

Ukraine and its allies have been increasingly concerned about the safe operation of the Zaporizhzhia plant — the largest in Europe — and recent fighting there has raised fears of serious incident.

The UN’s atomic watchdog warned earlier this week that a blackout in the nearby town of Energodar had “compromised the safe operation” of the nuclear facility.

Energoatom said Sunday that a cold shutdown was the “safest state” for the reactor.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)