UKRAINIAN attacks triggered power cuts over swathes of Russian-controlled territory in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in Ukraine’s south, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, Russia-installed officials said on Tuesday.

Officials said there was no effect on operations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station — Europe’s largest nuclear facility which was seized by Russia in the weeks after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian officials running the plant said radiation levels were normal at the facility, which operates in shutdown mode and produces no power at the moment.

Russia-installed governors in the two regions, which are among the key areas that Moscow demands that Ukraine give up in order for the war to end, said the Ukrainian attacks prompted authorities to introduce emergency measures to preserve power sources.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 600,000 people in nearly 500 settlements in Zaporizhzhia were without electricity, after shelling by Ukraine’s forces damaged high-voltage infrastructure, Russia-installed Governor Yevgeny Belitsky wrote on Telegram.

“As a result of shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, high-voltage equipment was damaged in the northwestern part of the Zaporizhzhia region,” Mr. Belitsky wrote.

The attacks came hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey for peace talks where Moscow said it would only agree to end the war if Kyiv gives up big new chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.

The Energy Ministry of Zaporizhzhia region has been instructed to conserve sources of power and healthcare sites have been transferred to reserve power sources.

In the adjacent Kherson region, farther west, Russia-appointed Governor Vladimir Saldo said debris from fallen drones had damaged two substations, knocking out power to more than 100,000 residents of 150 towns and villages in Russian-held areas. Emergency crews were working to restore power quickly, he said.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched in February 2022. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, most of them Ukrainian.

For many long months in the winter, it was Ukrainian towns and villages that endured repeated electricity cuts as Russian attacks focused strikes on generating capacity.

Each side has repeatedly accused the other of launching attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and running the risk of a nuclear accident.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said last week in response to a Ukrainian complaint that it saw no sign that Russia was preparing to restart the Zaporizhzhia plant and connect it to the Russian grid.

The IAEA has stationed monitors permanently at Zaporizhzhia and Ukraine’s other nuclear power stations.

Meanwhile, Russia’s overnight attacks killed one person in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv and injured several more in the northern city of Chernihiv, regional Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

A private enterprise was hit in the small town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia, killing one employee and injuring several others, Vitali Karabanov, the head of the town’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.

“A massive UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) attack on the town,” Mr. Karabanov said, without providing details of the scale.

The attacks came hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey for peace talks where Moscow said it would only agree to end the war if Kyiv gives up big new chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.

Ukraine has repeatedly rejected the Russian conditions as tantamount to surrender.

Falling drones on streets and residential buildings in the northern city of Chernihiv sparked several fires, including at residential houses, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, the head of the city’s military administration, said on Telegram.

Four people were hospitalized, Bryzhynskyi said. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said another 20 people, including eight children, received medical assistance at the site.

The service posted photos on its Telegram account showing firefighters battling blazes in the dark and medics attending to a group of children.

In the southern port city of Odesa, Russian overnight air attacks damaged residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, but there were no injuries, Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov wrote on Telegram.

The full scale of the overnight Russian attack on Ukraine was not immediately known. There was no immediate comment from Moscow and Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian reports. — Reuters

RWANDA-BACKED M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo executed at least 21 civilians over two days in February in the eastern city of Goma, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published on Tuesday.

The report covers incidents on February 22-23 in a Goma neighborhood, offering a snapshot of the violence during the latest escalation of the decades-long conflict.

“Commanders and combatants who directly ordered or carried out abuses should be held criminally accountable,” Human Rights Watch said in the report.

M23 rebels have seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu, in an offensive that began in January. The unprecedented advance has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

The 21 slain civilians included six men and one woman shot in the head near Katindo military camp in Goma on February 22. HRW said M23 were responsible, citing a witness.

In a separate incident, M23 killed people and dumped their bodies at a construction site less than 100 meters away from the camp. These included a 15-year-old who was taken from his home and later found dead at the site, HRW said, citing a relative and a neighbor.

Goma’s Kasika neighborhood was targeted because it had previously housed Congolese army barracks, HRW said.

The violence continued in the neighborhood a day later on Feb. 23 when M23 rounded up around 20 young men at a nearby sports field.

A witness told HRW the rebels accused the young men of being members of the army. Three that tried to run away were shot.

An M23 leader said the group would look into the allegations and publish the findings.

“HRW gives us an opportunity to mirror ourselves. We respect this organization despite its past accusations which proved to be false,” M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa told Reuters.

The overall toll in Goma is likely to be higher, HRW said, with medical workers reporting that over 50 bodies were collected from the Kasika area over the two-day period.

Other organizations have previously reported grievous crimes committed in eastern Congo since M23 seized swaths of territory.

Amnesty International in March said rebels had raided hospitals in Goma for wounded Congolese soldiers and taken 130 people including caregivers. Many were tortured and some are still missing.

UNICEF reported a five-fold surge in rape cases treated across 42 health centers in eastern Congo, in February, describing it as the worst sexual violence seen there in years. Almost a third of the victims were children, UNICEF said.

In one example, a mother reported that her six daughters, the youngest just 12 years old, were raped by armed men searching for food.

The conflict in eastern Congo is rooted in the spillover of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle over Congo’s vast mineral resources. Rwanda denies U.N. allegations that it backs the M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and allied militias. — Reuters