On the night of September 19, Russia fired at the territory of the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant (YNPP), located in the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk, Mykolaiv region, Energoatom reported. The rocket fell 300 meters from the nuclear reactors.
According to the company, the building of the nuclear power plant was damaged by the shock wave, more than 100 windows were broken. Also, one of the hydroelectric units of the Alexandrovskaya HPP was turned off and three high-voltage power lines were turned off.
Now all three power units are operating normally, there are no injured among the personnel. What happened at Energoatom was called "an act of nuclear terrorism."
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the shelling, saying that Russia endangers the whole world and must be stopped before it's too late. He also posted a video of the impact on his Telegram.
In another appeal, Zelensky said that preparations were underway for new offensives, and also promised to liberate all the territories occupied by Russia.
“We are preparing for the next wave. Because Ukraine should be free. Whole country. Izyum, Balakleya, Kupyansk and Kharkiv region in general are the cities and towns that we liberated. These words are spoken now. They are heard everywhere. Mariupol, Melitopol and Kherson are also heard, but they will sound even more often and louder when we free them. Donetsk, Gorlovka and Luhansk – they will also be heard. Dzhankoy, Evpatoria, Yalta – and they will be too.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claims that from the beginning of the war to September 19, Russia has lost 54,650 personnel. The Facebook page of the General Staff also says that since February 24, the Russian Federation has lost 2,212 tanks, 4,720 armored combat vehicles, 1,313 artillery systems, 312 MLRS, 168 air defense systems, 251 aircraft, 217 helicopters and 920 operational-tactical UAVs. In addition, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russia lost 238 cruise missiles, 15 ships, 3,581 vehicles and tankers.
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine provides updated data on the dead children. According to juvenile prosecutors, 390 children died during the war, more than 1,149 were injured.
Russian troops attempted to conduct a "counterattack" on the position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Bakhmut district of the Donetsk region, the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reports . To do this, a blow was struck by the forces of cannon and rocket artillery crews from the side of the "LPR". However, after the response of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian units left their firing positions, according to the GUR. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), in turn, reports that Russian forces continue to conduct "offensive operations" around Donetsk and Bakhmut, but they remain meaningless. According to analysts, now the Russian troops should focus on protecting against Ukrainian counteroffensives.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on this information. The last message about the situation in Bakhmut was published on the department’s Telegram channel on July 12. It said that in the city, on the lower and upper floors of residential buildings along Levanevskogo Street, Ukrainian territorial defense units “equipped firing positions.” The agency also claims that local residents were forbidden to leave their apartments, and citizens' attempts to evacuate to safe areas are "hardly suppressed."
At night, videos of the shelling of Bakhmut appeared on the network, including in pro-Russian Telegram channels:
In the Kharkiv region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine crossed the Oskol River and took control of both of its banks, according to the Strategic Communications Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. So Ukraine prepared a springboard for further advancement to the East.
Over the past day, Russia has shelled settlements in the Kharkiv region along the line of confrontation and on the border in the Kupyansky, Izyumsky, Chuguevsky and Kharkov regions. This was announced by the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration (OVA) Oleg Sinegubov.
According to him, as a result of the shelling there are victims, residential buildings, outbuildings and infrastructure facilities are also damaged. In Kupyansk, an 11-year-old boy was injured; in the Chuguevsky district, a 65-year-old woman was hospitalized with injuries. After the Russian retreat, many mines remain in the liberated territories, Sinegubov claims.
“Over the past day, 6 civilians exploded on mines. 2 people blew themselves up in a car in the Dergachevsky district, 2 more – in Izyumsky, 2 – in Chuguevsky. All of them were hospitalized with injuries."
OSINT journalists, meanwhile, calculated the losses of equipment of the Russian army during the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region. So, since September 6, the Russian Federation has lost 74 tanks: 44 T-72 and 30 T-80, 143 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as several air defense systems, radars, self-propelled guns and MLRS.
Russia has lost at least four warplanes amid shifting front lines over the past 10 days, the British Ministry of Defense said , citing intelligence. The Russian Air Force is taking greater risks in trying to provide air support to Russian ground forces under pressure from the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the intelligence brief notes.
Often the "situational awareness" of Russian pilots is poor, so there is a possibility that some aircraft ended up over enemy territory and got into denser air defense zones due to the fact that the front line changed quickly. Right now, Russia's lack of air superiority remains one of the most important factors.
Russia could transfer air defense systems from four regions near St. Petersburg to Ukraine, according to the Finnish television and radio company Yle, citing satellite images received. So, in the summer, both mobile launchers and missiles disappeared from a base in the Zelenogorsk region on the Karelian Isthmus, northwest of St. Petersburg.
The publication writes that St. Petersburg was surrounded by a protective "ring of 14 air defense bases" for a long time. But because of Finland's announcement of joining NATO, Russia decided to redeploy forces.
In early September, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv direction. In the early days, Ukraine did not officially comment on the information, by the morning of September 10, messages began to appear in social networks that the country had returned under its control not only towns and villages, but also large cities – Izyum, Kupyansk and Liman. In just a few days, the Ukrainian military was able to liberate almost the entire Kharkiv region, which Russian troops occupied in the spring, and return 6,000 km² of territory under their control. Read more about how the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv direction began in The Insider online.