Russian authorities controlling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine are preparing to evacuate more than 3,000 staff and families from the facility and surrounding areas, Ukraine’s energy provider, Energoatom, said Wednesday. News of the plan was first reported by The Washington Post on Monday.
The move would leave a “catastrophic lack of skilled personnel,” Energoatom said in a Telegram post. Previously, many of the workers were “prohibited from leaving the town by the Russians,” it said. The plant pullout is part of the occupying authorities’ effort to evacuate civilians in advance of a potential Ukrainian offensive in the south.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly promised continued support for Ukraine regardless of the outcome of Kyiv’s anticipated counteroffensive. Ukrainian officials worry that the operation, which is expected to start in the coming weeks, could fall short of Western expectations and jeopardize future aid.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
U.S. says it has disabled major Russian cyberespionage operation: Federal law enforcement officials have hacked and disabled a complex Russian cyberespionage operation that had been used to steal sensitive material from the United States and its allies for about 20 years, The Post’s Perry Stein reports. Officials said they had been looking at the network for almost as long as it was online, but executed a search warrant only this week.
“Through a high-tech operation that turned Russian malware against itself, U.S. law enforcement has neutralized one of Russia’s most sophisticated cyberespionage tools, used for two decades to advance Russia’s authoritarian objectives,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a news release.
Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.
