Ukraine: Situation Report, 7 Sep 2022 [EN/UK/RU]

HIGHLIGHTS

• Two separate attacks in Donetska and Zaporizka oblasts affected humanitarian assets and a humanitarian distribution site, causing several civilian casualties in the latter case.
• The security situation in the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) area remained tense. Meanwhile, the IAEA mission arrived on 1 September to inspect the NPP.
• Across Ukraine, the civilian toll of the war is nearing 14,000, with most civilian casualties verified in the usual hotspots of Donetska and Luhanska oblasts.
• Despite persistent insecurity, another humanitarian convoy brought 65 tons of humanitarian supplies for 5,000 people in Chasiv Yar and surrounding communities.
• The humanitarian response also continues to pick up the pace. Since 24 February, humanitarians have reached 12.8 million people with some form of assistance or services.

ANALYSIS

General security and humanitarian situation

Active hostilities continued to be concentrated in the eastern and southern parts of the country during the reporting period, with more attempts by civilians to flee the hard-hit areas being reported. Separate attacks have also affected humanitarian assets in Donetska oblast and civilians receiving aid in Zaporizka oblast in the past week. The security situation in the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) area remained tense, and the city of Enerhodar, where the plant is located, was cut off from the power supply due to shelling. Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission arrived in Enerhodar on 1 September to inspect the NPP.

The heaviest fighting was reported in Donetska oblast in eastern Ukraine. At least 50 civilian casualties were reported there during the 2-4 September weekend alone, reportedly including in the front-line cities of Bakhmut, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Government-controlled areas (GCA) of the oblast and in Donetsk, Horlivka and Makiivka in non-Government-controlled areas (NGCA). Scores of houses and other civilian infrastructure were also reportedly damaged. And the INGO World Central Kitchen (WCK) reported that shrapnel and fire from explosions near its warehouse in Kramatorsk destroyed some food supplies and damaged three trucks. An earlier missile strike on 15 June that hit a train in Donetska oblast reportedly destroyed a wagon of food from WCK. Meanwhile, there were more reports of shelling and civilian casualties throughout the week in both Donetska and Kharkivska oblasts.

In other parts of Ukraine, the southern Mykolaivska oblast continued to report missile strikes and shelling on a daily basis – including on 3 September, when a missile reportedly struck a house in the village of Vysunsk, killing one child and injuring three more children and one adult. On 4 September a grain elevator in the city of Ochakiv was destroyed, and the administrative centre of Mykolaiv came under massive shelling that damaged buildings including three health-care and three educational facilities. Ongoing damage to civilian infrastructure only increases the challenges Mykolaivska oblast faces preparing for winter – with over 700 damaged buildings needing their windows replaced in Mykolaiv alone.

In the central Dnipropetrovska oblast, 10 civilians were reportedly injured and a dozen buildings damaged in shelling in the city of Zelenodolsk on 3 September, an older woman was reportedly killed and three other residents injured by rocket strikes in Apostolove on 5 September, and the city of Nikopol – located across the Dnipro River from Enerhodar and the Zaporizhzhia NPP in NGCA of the south-eastern Zaporizka oblast – reportedly continued to be impacted by repeated strikes. Then, on 6 September, the Zaporizka oblast authorities reported that three civilians were killed and five more were seriously injured when the village of Mala Tokmachka was shelled while they were queueing to receive humanitarian aid. The humanitarian aid that was distributed by local authorities at the site was provided by the World Food Programme (WFP), the INGO People in Need and other humanitarian actors. In response to the attack, Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Denise Brown and WFP Emergency Coordinator Matthew Hollingworth stressed that “people must be able to safely access the essential supplies they desperately need after enduring 196 days of a ferocious war.”

Developments concerning Zaporizhzhia NPP featured the arrival on 1 September of Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and his team from IAEA, which announced they had begun their safety inspection of the plant and planned to maintain an indefinite presence there. But then developments also featured reports in the following days of continued fighting and shelling on and around the territory of the plant – resulting in damage to the remaining power lines connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity network and, so, continuing to affect ZNPP’s ability to operate and to raise safety concerns. Ukrainian operator Energoatom reported that the intense shelling had sparked a fire on 5 September that forced the temporary disconnection of a backup power line and, so, the disconnection from the electricity network of reactor No. 6, then the plant’s only operational reactor. IAEA reported that it was told by Ukrainian staff that the backup power line would be reconnected after the fire was extinguished and that they also planned to repair a damaged main power line. But the situation at ZNPP remained concerning, with calls by IAEA and the UN for the area to be demilitarized reportedly going unheeded. Furthermore, intense shelling on 6 and 7 September reportedly left Enerhodar without electricity and water supply, at least temporarily. Separately, on 6 September, IAEA published its 2nd Summary Report: Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguards in Ukraine, covering the period from 28 April to 5 September.