KYIV (Reuters) – Russian forces are evacuating residents from the town that serves the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainanian military said on Sunday.
Ukraine is expected to start soon a much-anticipated counteroffensive to retake Moscow-held territory, including in the Zaporizhzhia region.
In its morning update, Ukraine’s General staff said Russian forces were evacuating local Russian passport-holders to the port city of Berdyansk and the town Prymorsk, both on the coast of the Sea of Azov.
“The first to be evacuated are those who accepted Russian citizenship in the first months of the occupation,” it said in a statement.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
The head of the U.N.’s nuclear power watchdog said on Saturday the situation around the station, Europe’s largest, has become “potentially dangerous”.
Both sides have accused one another of shelling the plant and efforts to secure a safety zone around it have failed.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
