August 26, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

The US State Department confirmed the death of another American citizen in the war in Ukraine. 

The State Department did not release the name of the American or any details about the circumstances of their death.

This is at least the third US citizen to die in the invasion. Stephen Zabierslki was killed in May and Marine Corps veteran Willy Cancel was killed in April.

Meanwhile, two American volunteers fighting for Ukraine have been held by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk. US citizens Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, Alabama, had been fighting alongside Ukrainian forces north of Kharkiv before they were captured.

CNN has reported that a third American US Marine veteran Grady Kurpasi is missing in action. The last time his wife and close friends had heard from Kurpasi was in April. He chose to volunteer alongside Ukrainians in Ukraine but initially did not envision himself fighting on the front lines, a family friend told CNN.

Tensions continue to rise around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is located in the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine and is the largest complex of its kind in Europe.

Both Ukraine and Russia have tried to point the finger at each other for threatening nuclear terrorism. Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russian forces of storing heavy weaponry inside the complex and using it as cover to launch attacks. Moscow, meanwhile, has claimed Ukrainian troops are targeting the site.

Here are the top headlines to know from Friday:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lauded workers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after they successfully reconnected it to Ukraine’s national grid on Friday.

“Our nuclear scientists, all specialists in the energy industry, managed to protect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from the worst-case scenario, which is constantly being provoked by Russian forces. Currently, the station is connected to the network. Congratulations! It produces energy for Ukraine,” Zelensky said during his daily nighttime address. 

“That is why it is so important that the (International Atomic Energy Agency) mission arrives at the station as soon as possible and helps keep the NPP under Ukrainian control on a permanent basis. That is why it is so important that Russian troops withdraw from the station and neighboring areas and that the threat of shelling of the station itself or power lines from it disappears,” Zelensky continued.

More background: Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for security and military action at and around the plant. The lack of independent access to the plant makes it impossible to verify what is happening there. Over the past month, a number of rockets and shells have landed on the territory of the plant, according to satellite imagery analyzed by CNN. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a press conference at 4 Wing Cold Lake air base in Cold Lake, Alberta, on August 26.

NATO’s secretary general called his trip to Canada’s high north “historic” and promised a new era of Arctic defense as the risk of military conflict in the region increases. 

“NATO’s new strategic concept identifies Russia’s capabilities in the high north as a strategic challenge for the whole alliance. Russia has set up a new Arctic command, it has opened hundreds of new and former Soviet-era Arctic military sites, including airfields and deep water ports. Russia is also using the region as a test-bed for many of its new and novel weapons systems,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a news conference in Cold Lake, Alberta, alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.  

The secretary general also noted that “the shortest path to North America for Russian missiles and bombers would be over the North Pole.”

Stoltenberg is wrapping up a three-day visit to Canada, where he received a firsthand look at the North Warning System radar station in the country’s Arctic.

Canada has been reluctant to expand NATO’s role in the defense of the Arctic. The US and Canada jointly protect the high north through North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) operations. 

More context: Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Arctic has been a contentious stomping ground in geopolitics as global warming has reduced ice coverage and opened new commercial shipping lanes and made military expansion possible.

The US State Department also announced Friday that President Biden plans to elevate the Arctic coordinator position by appointing an ambassador-at-large for the Arctic region, subject to the consent of the Senate.

In a statement, the State department noted that a “peaceful, stable, prosperous, and cooperative” Arctic region is of critical strategic importance to the United States.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is seen outside of Enerhodar, Ukraine, on August 22.

A second power unit at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was connected, Ukrainian state-run nuclear power operator Energoatom said Friday.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, “despite numerous provocations by the (Russian) occupiers, continues to work in the energy system of Ukraine and provide our country’s electricity needs,” Energoatom said in a statement. 

The operator praised workers at the plant, describing them as “real heroes.”

Earlier in the day, Energoatom announced that the power plant had been reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid.

The plant is located in the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine and is the largest complex of its kind in Europe.

Russia said it is doing everything it can to make sure a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can have access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Friday.

Russia is “doing everything necessary to ensure that the international IAEA mission to the ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant) takes place, proceeds in a safe manner and is able to achieve all the goals set before it,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

The plant is located in the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine, and the UN’s nuclear watchdog said it has not been able to visit the facility since before the conflict began six months ago.

Zakharova also called for “an end to the shelling of the station, ensuring its further safe operation.”

Some background: Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russian forces, which seized the plant – the largest complex of its kind in Europe — in March, of storing heavy weaponry inside the complex and using it as cover to launch attacks, knowing that Ukraine can’t return fire without risking hitting one of the plant’s six reactors, a mistake that would spell disaster.

Moscow, meanwhile, has claimed Ukrainian troops are targeting the site. Both sides have tried to point the finger at each other for threatening nuclear terrorism. The lack of independent access to the plant makes it impossible to verify what is happening there. CNN is unable to verify what strikes occurred or who was responsible.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Friday that Russian forces are “maintaining the captured districts” of parts of Zaporizhzhia, as well as areas of Kherson, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions.

Meanwhile, the nuclear power plant has been reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid, nuclear operator Energoatom said in an updated statement on Friday. 

A woman walks past the United States Embassy to Ukraine on April 25 in Kyiv.

The US Embassy in Kyiv has once again warned Americans against traveling to Ukraine, including to make a pilgrimage to a Ukrainian town for Rosh Hashanah in late September.

In a security alert issued Friday titled “Message for U.S. Citizens Considering Travel to Uman for Rosh Hashanah,” the Embassy reiterated that it suspended consular services in February due to the war and that “the State Department recommends U.S. citizens do not travel to Ukraine.”

The central Ukrainian town of Uman holds the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement. Thousands of Jewish pilgrims each year travel to the memorial to celebrate the Jewish new year.

In March, CNN reported that a makeshift bomb shelter had been established in the synagogue.

Last week, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk told the Jerusalem Post that Ukraine cannot guarantee the security of those who make the pilgrimage.

According to the publication, more than 30,000 made the journey last year, mostly from Israel, and the ambassador told them that such a large gathering this year could lead to an attack by the Russians.

French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies said Friday it complete the sale of its stake in a Russian company producing jet fuel.  

The comment followed the publication on Thursday of an article by the French newspaper Le Monde reporting that the “French oil and gas giant and its local partner Novatek manage a gas field whose product, once transformed into kerosene, is used to fuel Russian fighter planes engaged in the war in Ukraine. Terneftegaz, the company that runs the field, is 49% owned by TotalEnergies and 51% by Novatek.”

In response to the Le Monde report, TotalEnergies issued a statement Friday saying that while Terneftegaz produces jet fuel at its Purovsky plant in western Siberia, it does not have the certification to be sold inside Russia.

The company said the media reports and calls to investigate its activities and activities by its joint companies have “absolutely no basis in fact.”

The company then concluded that “no, TotalEnergies does not produce jet fuel for the Russian army.”

Following that statement, TotalEnergies also that it sold “its 49% interest in the Russian Termokarstovoye gas field to Novatek,” and that it “continues to implement its principles of conduct.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Friday called on TotalEnergies to pull out of Russia. 

Kuleba said via Twitter that his country is “grateful to (French President) @EmmanuelMacron and the French people for supporting Ukraine,” but “against this background, it is a disgrace to France when French companies assist the murder of Ukrainians and the ruining of our cities. @TotalEnergies, pull out of Russia!”

Earlier this year, TotalEnergies also stated that it would stop buying Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022 at the latest.

The company, however, said that it will continue to purchase natural gas from Russia.

“Unlike oil supply, it appears that Europe’s gas logistics capacities make it difficult to do without Russian gas in the next two to three years without affecting the continent’s energy supply,” TotalEnergies said in a statement. 

The company said it will mobilize oil products from other places, especially diesel produced by the SATORP refinery in Saudi Arabia.

TotalEnergies’ contracts for Russian oil accounted for 12% of Russia’s diesel exports to the European Union in 2021, according to the statement.

The company reiterated that it doesn’t operate any oil or gas fields or liquified natural gas plants in Russia and is moving toward a gradual suspension of its activities in Russia, according to the statement. 

The Ukrainian railway station damaged by a Russian missile strike in Chaplyne, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, on August 25.

Rescue operations have concluded in Chaplyne after Wednesday’s Russian strike on the southeastern Ukrainian train station killed at least 25 people, according to Mykola Lukashuk, the head of Dnipropetrovsk regional council.

“The station was shelled, and there was a fire in 5 carriages. A car with migrants from Donetsk was passing by, there was a family and a 17-year-old daughter. Parents died,” Lukashuk said during a press briefing in the Media Center Ukraine and posted on Facebook.

The Russian defense ministry claimed that its strike on Chaplyne killed more than 200 Ukrainian service members and destroyed 10 equipment units.

He said that many evacuees go through the station.

“It is through this station that the evacuation of people from Pokrovsk, from the Donetsk region, takes place. This is a train from there to Lviv. Therefore, as I have already said, the very use of Iskander and S-300 proves that the enemy understood that civilians were there and that there was no military personnel there. You all saw the footage that flew from there in the first minutes after the emergency services and the police arrived there. There were no soldiers there. Only civilians were there. And we believe that this is a purposeful act of terror, to put pressure on the population and destroy civilians,” he said.

Energy ministers of the European Union will gather for an urgent meeting as soon as possible to discuss emergency measures, the Czech government announced on Friday. The Czech Republic currently holds the presidency of the European Council.

Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala tweeted that the Czech presidency “will convene an urgent meeting of Energy Ministers to discuss specific emergency measures to address the energy situation.”

“We are in an energy war with Russia and it is damaging the whole European Union,” Jozef Síkela, the Czech minister of industry and trade, tweeted on Friday.

A satellite image from Copernicus shows a gas flare, in Portovaya, Russia, on August 7.

Rystad Energy, an energy research company, estimates that Russia is burning about $10 million worth of natural gas a day as it severely restricts its exports to Europe.

“The flaring issue first came to light a few weeks ago when Finnish citizens noticed a large flame on the horizon at the Russian border,” it added.

Russia is burning about 4.34 million cubic meters of gas a day, according to estimates by Rystad Energy. That’s equivalent to 1.6 billion cubic meters on an annual basis, or about 0.5% of the EU’s gas demand.

The analysis was first published on BBC. CNN has reached out to Russian state energy giant Gazprom for comment.

While the reason for the flaring is unclear, Rystad said it could be part of testing procedures at Portovaya LNG which is planned to start up later this year, or due to a lack of coordination between different operating segments. Or the reason could be political.

“The flaring flame is highly visible, perhaps indicating that gas is ready and waiting to flow to Europe if friendly political relations resume,” Rystad added in its note.

The dismantling of the Soviet-era monument in Riga, Latvia, on August 25.

Latvia has toppled a 260-foot monument erected during the Soviet era to “close another painful page of history.”

Built in 1985, the obelisk commemorated the Soviet Army’s victory over the Nazis and was located in Riga’s Victory Park. Its removal was broadcast live on Latvian media on Thursday.

The monument consisted of a 260-foot (79-meter) structure decorated with five golden stars, each symbolizing a year of the World War II. The obelisk was flanked on either side by a bronze statue of three soldiers and a statue of a woman representing the “Motherland.”

In June, the Latvian Parliament announced in a press release that it had passed a law that “provides for the dismantling of the sites glorifying the Soviet and Nazi regimes, including the Monument to the Soviet soldiers — Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders in the Victory Park in Riga.”

The law afforded the relevant municipalities the discretion to initiate the dismantling “regardless of the ownership of the site and the land on which it is located.”

“The purpose of the law is to prevent the denigration of and threat to the values of Latvia as a democracy and a nation state, as well as to express a condemnatory stance against the illegal occupation power, policies, and crimes of both the USSR and Nazi Germany,” the press release said.

Satellite image of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine, on August 13.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid, nuclear operator Energoatom said in an updated statement on Friday.

“Nuclear workers of Zaporizhzhia NPP are real heroes! They tirelessly and firmly hold the nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine and the whole of Europe on their shoulders and work selflessly so that their native country has life-giving electricity,” the statement added.

The plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, was disconnected for the first time in its history on Thursday.

An administrative worker at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has hailed its staff as “heroes,” a day after the plant was disconnected from the country’s power grid for the first time in its history.

According to Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom, the plant’s last remaining power line had disconnected twice Thursday following fires at a nearby thermal power plant. The loss of power led to backup diesel generators being “immediately activated” to avert a “radiation disaster,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Speaking to CNN Friday, the administrative worker – whose identity is not being disclosed for their security – stated that “everything is already ok.”

“Yesterday there was no electricity, no water, nothing. But everything is already ok, the men [operational staff] at the NPP [Nuclear Power Plant] are just smarties and heroes,” said the employee, who has spoken with CNN on previous occasions.

While the power supply line had been restored, all six reactors at the plant remain disconnected from the country’s electricity grid, Energoatom said Friday.

“Although all blocks [reactors] are stopped for the first time in history. You need steam to get them going. And nothing produces it, everything is standing,” the worker added.

The plant employee said with “shelling around the station and the city, smoke from fires, dust from the ash dump of a thermal power plant” that the “situation sometimes looks like the end of the world” at the plant. “It’s really tough when there are strong winds.”

Ukraine has accused Russian troops of using the plant as a shield, risking a potential disaster. In response, the Kremlin has alleged that Ukrainian forces are shelling the plant.

A serviceman with a Russian flag on his uniform stands guard near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar, Ukraine, on August 4.

The continued presence of Russian forces at and near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is a “constant trigger of a possible nuclear disaster,” Ukraine’s energy minister said Thursday. 

All six reactors at the plant in southeastern Ukraine remain disconnected from the electricity grid, nuclear operator Energoatom said Friday after the facility — which has been occupied by Russian forces since March — was disconnected for the first time in its history on Thursday.

Ukraine has accused Russian troops of using the plant as a shield, risking a potential disaster. The Kremlin has in turn repeatedly accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the plant.

Negotiations areunder way for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit the plant and Halushchenko said the United Nations nuclear watchdog should be permitted to study the impact of Russian troops’ presence there.

He also stressed the need for “urgent de-occupation and demilitarization” of the plant.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar, Ukraine, on August 22.

All six reactors at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) remain disconnected from the country’s electricity grid, nuclear operator Energoatom said in a statement Friday. 

The Kherson regional civil-military administration accused Russian forces of cutting two power lines to the plant, leaving the entire Kherson region temporarily without electricity and water supply on Thursday before it was restored by the end of the day.

Pope Francis delivers his speech during the traditional Wednesday General Audience at Paul VI Audience Hall in Vatican City, Italy, on August 24.

Ukraine has invited the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, to the country to address Pope Francis’ recent comments on late Russian political commentator Darya Dugina, in which he referred to her as being among the “innocents” who pay for war. 

What the Pope said: Pope Francis on Wednesday said Dugina, who was killed in a Moscow car bomb on Aug. 20, is among the “innocents” killed by war. 

Russia has blamed the Ukrainian security service for the car bombing that killed Dugina, according to state media, while Ukraine has denied any involvement. 

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar, Ukraine, on August 22.

Backup diesel generators were “immediately activated” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Thursday to avert a “radiation disaster,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Today, for the first time in history, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant stopped,” Zelensky said in his nightly address Thursday.

CNN is unable to verify who is responsible for the shelling, as both sides have accused the other.

There were originally four power lines supplying electricity to the plant; three were out of action due to the ongoing fighting around the facility. The last remaining power line supplying electricity to the plant went offline Thursday, requiring the diesel generators to be used. The power on the last remaining line has since been restored as of Thursday evening. 

The generators are installed to supply power to cooling pumps to stop the fuel from overheating in the event of a blackout, but are not fully reliable, the CEO of Energoatom, Ukraine’s state energy operator, Petro Kotin, told CNN on Monday. 

“Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster,” Zelensky alleged. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency and other international bodies “must work much faster than they’re acting now” he said, “because every minute the Russian troops stay at the nuclear power plant is a risk of a global radiation disaster.”

More background: The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is currently not supplying electricity to Ukraine — it is off the grid — however, the reactors need to continue to receive electricity so they can safely operate and avoid a nuclear accident. 

The reactors must have backup power supplies so the systems that provide cooling for spent fuel elements and cooling of residual heat produced in shut down reactors continue to work safely. The electricity to the plant is also needed for maintaining services such as lighting, and ventilation to the reactor.

When Russian troops started shelling nearby towns from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant where she worked in southeastern Ukraine, Elena decided it was time to escape.

She had kept working at the Zaporizhzhia complex for months after it was stormed by the Russians in March, among hundreds of Ukrainian workers effectively kept hostage to enable the power station ​— the largest nuclear power plant in Europe — ​to keep running.

But eventually, the constant explosions and fears for her young son’s life made her take the risk to leave.

CNN agreed to use only Elena’s first name out of respect for her safety concerns.​

The Ukrainians have accused the Russian troops of using the plant as a shield, and risking serious damage or a potential disaster at the plant. In response, the Kremlin has repeatedly claimed Ukrainian forces are shelling the plant.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during an address to the UN Security Council on Wednesday that Russia had “put the world on the brink of radiation catastrophe” by turning the plant into a “war zone,” and called for demilitarization of the plant.

“At night (the Russians) are firing somewhere behind the reservoir,” Elena said. “There are many, many explosions at the same time, like big cars firing.”

Worker exodus: Fears about the consequences of the actions of Russian troops around the plant have hastened an exodus of workers.

“For the last two weeks, there has been a crazy outflow of staff,” said Daria, an employee who is still working at the nuclear plant. ​CNN agreed not to use her real name in light of her safety concerns. “We have people leaving en masse, dozens of them, in packs.”

Elena said employees at the plant are terrified of the Russian troops based there, as they walk around with machine guns and, at night, often “get drunk and shoot in the air.”

Read the full story here.