Ukraine war: Power back on at huge nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia
The UN's nuclear watchdog (IAEA) says Ukraine's huge Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has begun receiving power from the national grid once again, BBC reported.
Shelling in the area damaged power lines connected to the plant.
All six of its reactors are in a state of cold shutdown, but the plant needs external power to cool its reactors and defend against the risk of a meltdown.
The IAEA says the situation of the plant, which is held by Russian forces, has improved but remains precarious.
A team of nuclear experts from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) travelled to Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear plant, at the beginning of the month.
The trip followed increasing calls from Ukraine and the international community for a safety inspection following reports of shelling.
After the IAEA's first inspection, the agency announced it would maintain a permanent presence in order to monitor the situation.
Members of the team at the site on Saturday learnt that one of the four main external power lines damaged by shelling had been repaired, allowing electricity to be received directly from the national grid, the IAEA tweeted on Saturday.
Further east in Ukraine, the discovery of mass graves in Izyum has led the European Union presidency to call for an international tribunal for war crimes to be carried out.
Hundreds of bodies have been discovered buried in a forest at the edge of the city, which recently came under the control of Ukraine after Russian forces retreated, according to BBC.
Many are said to be civilians, women and children among them.
"In the 21st Century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent," said Jan Lipavsky, foreign minister of the Czech Republic which holds the EU's rotating presidency.
"We must not overlook it. We stand for the punishment of all war criminals," he wrote in a tweet. "I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression."
Fighting raged on Saturday in the divided eastern region of Donetsk, which is mostly under the control of Russian-backed separatists.
The separatist mayor of Donetsk city said four people had been killed by Ukrainian government shelling of a central district while the Donetsk region's Ukrainian governor accused Russian forces of shelling a thermal power plant in Mykolaivka, disrupting drinking water supplies in the area.
Ukrainian troops are continuing their counter-offensive in the country's north-east, after successfully recapturing territory from Russia in recent days, the UK's defence ministry says. It adds that Russia has established a defensive line protecting one of its main supply routes from Belgorod, near its border with Ukraine, BBC reported.
Government takes back Electricity Bill-2077
The government has taken back the Electricity Bill-2077, which was under consideration at the National Assembly. The government withdrew the under consideration bill in accordance with Article 112 of the Constitution and Rule-116 of the National Assembly Regulations. The proposal presented by Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation for the withdrawal of the bill in today's National Assembly meeting was passed unanimously. On the occasion, National Assembly Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina announced the withdrawal of the bill from the National Assembly. The next meeting of the National Assembly will be held at 11 am on September 18.
Government recommends President Bhandari to end House session from tomorrow
The government has recommended President Bidya Devi Bhandari to end the Parliament session from Saturday. A Cabinet meeting held at the official residence of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in Baluwatar on Friday decided to recommend the President to end the House session from tomorrow. Earlier, a Parliament meeting held this afternoon endorsed three ordinances.
Ukrainian president: Mass grave found near recaptured city
Ukrainian authorities found a mass burial site near a recaptured northeastern city previously occupied by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Thursday night, Associated Press reported.
The grave was discovered close to Izium in the Kharkiv region.
“The necessary procedures have already begun there. More information — clear, verifiable information — should be available tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly televised address.
Associated Press journalists saw the site Thursday in a forest outside Izium. Amid the trees were hundreds of graves with simple wooden crosses, most of them marked only with numbers. A larger grave bore a marker saying it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers.
Investigators with metal detectors were scanning the site for any hidden explosives.
Oleg Kotenko, an official with the Ukrainian ministry tasked with reintegrating occupied territories, said videos that Russian soldiers posted on social media indicated there were likely more than 17 bodies in the grave.
“We haven’t counted them yet, but I think there are more than 25 or even 30,” he said.
Izium resident Sergei Gorodko said that among the hundreds buried in individual graves were dozens of adults and children killed in a Russian airstrike on an apartment building.
He said he pulled some of them out of the rubble “with my own hands.”
Zelenskyy invoked the names of other Ukrainian cities where authorities said retreating Russian troops left behind mass graves of civilians and evidence of possible war crimes.
“ Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium. … Russia leaves death everywhere. And it must be held accountable for it. The world must bring Russia to real responsibility for this war,” he said in the address, according to Associated Press.
Sergei Bolvinov, a senior investigator for Ukrainian police in the eastern Kharkiv region, told British TV broadcaster Sky News that a pit containing more than 440 bodies was discovered near Izium after Kyiv’s forces swept in. He described the grave as “one of the largest burial sites in any one liberated city.”
Some of the people buried in the pit were shot. Others died from artillery fire, mines or airstrikes. Many of the bodies have not been identified yet, Bolvinov said.
Russian forces left Izium and other parts of the Kharkiv region last week amid a stunning Ukrainian counteroffensive. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy made a rare trip outside the capital to watch the national flag being raised over Izium’s city hall.
Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Enin said Thursday night that other evidence found after Kyiv’s sweeping advance into the Kharkiv region included multiple “torture chambers” where both Ukrainian citizens and foreigners were detained “in completely inhuman conditions.”
“We have already come across the exhumation of individual bodies, not only with traces of a violent death, but also of torture — cut off ears, etc. This is just the beginning,” Enin said in an interview with Ukraine’s Radio NV.
He claimed that among those held at one of the sites were students from an unspecified Asian country who were captured at a Russian checkpoint as they tried to leave for Ukrainian-controlled territory, Associated Press reported.
Enin did not specify where the students were held, although he named the small cities of Balakliya and Volchansk as two locations where torture chambers were found. His account could not be independently verified.
