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Indonesian Rescuers Rush To Save Students Trapped Under Collapsed School
Indonesian rescuers were locked in a desperate race against time to free nearly 60 teenagers trapped beneath the rubble of an Islamic boarding school, which collapsed earlier this week following a foundation failure, disaster authorities said on Thursday.
The Al Khoziny school, located in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, some 480 miles east of the capital Jakarta, collapsed when its foundations could not support ongoing construction work on the upper floors, cratering upon dozens of students who were praying and trapping them under rubble.
Abdul Muhari, spokesperson with the disaster mitigation agency, said in a statement on Thursday that 59 people remained trapped, based on the school’s list of absences and missing person reports filed by families.
No Signs Of Life
Rescuers found no signs of life on Thursday after calling out the names of the victims and using motion detectors and scanners to track movements or vital signs, search and rescue agency official Emi Freezer told Reuters.
In signature orange uniforms, rescuers crawled through narrow tunnels to find students trapped under rubble, according to photos distributed by the agency.
Late on Wednesday, Yudhi Bramantyo, operations director at the agency, said the total death toll from the collapse had reached six, although the country’s disaster mitigation agency said on Thursday it was still at five.
“We can’t let our minds wander. Maybe there is still hope for our little brothers,” Bramantyo said.
A crane has been deployed on Thursday to lift light, unconnected debris, Freezer said.
Al Khoziny is an Islamic school known locally as a pesantren.
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, has a total of about 42,000 pesantren, serving 7 million students, according to data from the country’s religious affairs ministry.
Waiting along with other anxious parents convening around a whiteboard showing a list of survivors, Ahmad Ikhsan, 52, was still holding out hope that his 14-year-old son, Arif Affandi, would be found.
“Until now, I haven’t heard about my son,” he said. “I believe my son is still alive.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
Hegseth’s Plan To Restructure Military Watchdogs Raises Alarm Among U.S. Officials
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has unveiled a plan to restructure the military’s internal watchdog agencies, a move that has drawn concern from current and former officials. They warn the changes could weaken oversight and allow misconduct in the country’s largest and costliest government branch to go unchecked.
Hegseth signed a memo this week aimed at halting spurious investigations into military fraud and abuse, a move that comes as the Trump administration weakens inspectors general across the federal government.
Hegseth himself is being investigated over his use of the commercial messaging app Signal to discuss Yemen attack plans.
Federal inspectors general offices were created by Congress in 1978 as independent parts of U.S. government agencies to investigate and audit waste, fraud and abuse.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has fired at least 17 of them across the government, prompting accusations from Democrats that he wants to eliminate accountability for his administration.
“We are overhauling an inspector general process, the IG, that has been weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat,” Hegseth told top U.S. military leaders on Tuesday.
Complaints To Settle Scores?
The reforms include forcing IG offices to decide whether tips are backed by “credible evidence” within seven days and to track any “repeat complainants.”
Some current and former officials agree with Hegseth that complaints can be used to settle scores within the military, a vast bureaucracy of 2 million people where promotions and even retirements can be held up and thwarted by complaints to IGs.
One U.S. official who approved of Hegseth’s move said the memo could mean fewer frivolous complaints, allowing investigators to focus on more important tips.
But critics of the reforms argue they could ultimately hamper oversight, weaken the independence of the IG and put whistleblowers in an impossible situation.
“Hegseth is trying to shut down investigations and increasingly punish victims for reporting extremely difficult issues,” Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and fierce critic of Hegseth, said.
The Pentagon said it did not have any comment beyond the memo itself.
Advocates And Officials Criticise Hegseth’s Decision
Hegseth’s move drew criticism from advocates and some current and former officials.
“Let’s call this what it is: a coordinated assault against oversight, accountability, and lawful whistleblowers,” Whistleblower Aid, a legal advocacy group, said in a statement.
A second U.S. official said that evaluating a complaint is a labor-intensive process, sometimes requiring experts who are often overworked, and difficult to complete within the one week the memo calls for.
A former senior U.S. official added that updating the subject of a review every 14 days, which the memo orders, would undermine the integrity of the investigation by potentially disclosing future steps and revealing evidence they already have.
Each military branch has its own watchdog, but unlike federal inspectors general offices, they have certain limitations.
The cases handled by military inspectors general offices range from employment conditions to corruption among senior officers.
Last month, a retired four-star admiral was sentenced to six years in prison for bribery. The first complaint against the officer came from a tip to an inspector general hotline, the former official said.
The Pentagon’s inspector general office has investigated senior officials across administrations, including former President Joe Biden’s defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, over his secret hospitalization in 2024, which he failed to disclose to the president.
Earlier this year, it started a review of Hegseth’s use of an unclassified commercial texting application to coordinate highly sensitive U.S. strikes on Yemen’s Houthis.
Hegseth has repeatedly said no classified information was revealed in the chat, even though it included precise times for the launch of U.S. airstrikes and some targeting details.
The new memo would not impact the investigation into Hegseth, and officials have said that the review could be published within the coming days.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Israeli Bulldozers In West Bank Erode Palestinian Statehood Hopes
As U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to end the Gaza war and floated a path to Palestinian statehood, Ashraf Samara watched bulldozers near his West Bank village erase his hopes for the future.
Surrounded by armed security guards, the Israeli machinery shoved aside earth to create new routes for Jewish settlements, carving up the land around Samara’s village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa and creating new barriers to movement for Palestinians.
“This is to prevent the residents from reaching and using this land,” said Samara, a member of his village council.
He told Reuters the move would “trap the villages and the residential communities” by confining them exclusively to the areas they live in.
With each new road that makes movement for Jewish settlers easier, Palestinians in the West Bank who are usually barred from using the routes face fresh hurdles in reaching nearby towns, workplaces or agricultural land.
More Nations Recognise Palestinian State
While several major European countries, including Britain and France, in September joined an expanding list of nations recognising a Palestinian state, Israeli settlements on the West Bank have been expanding at an increasingly rapid pace under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government as the Gaza war has raged.
Palestinians and most nations regard settlements as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.
Hagit Ofran, a member of the Israeli activist group Peace Now, said new roads being bulldozed around Beit Ur al-Fauqa and beyond were a bid by Israel to control more Palestinian land.
“They are doing it in order to set facts on the ground. As much as they have the power, they will spend the money,” she said, adding that Israel had allocated seven billion shekels ($2.11 billion) to build roads in the West Bank since the October 2023 Hamas attacks that sparked Israel’s war in Gaza.
Israeli settlements, which have grown in size and number since Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, stretch deep into the territory, backed by a system of roads and other infrastructure under Israeli control.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem, in a 2004 report, described this network of roads and bypasses to settlements built over several decades as “Israel’s Discriminatory Road Regime”. The group said some roads were aimed at placing a physical barrier to stifle Palestinian urban development.
Netanyahu’s office and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Yesha Council, a body that represents West Bank settlers, also did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Before Trump’s Gaza plan was announced, Netanyahu declared: “There will never be a Palestinian state”, speaking as he approved a project last month to expand construction between the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim and Jerusalem.
His finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said of the same project that it would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.
Trump’s Gaza plan to end the war, which Netanyahu approved, outlines a potential pathway to Palestinian statehood, but the conditions it lays down to achieve that mean such an outcome is far from guaranteed, analysts say.
“What the government is now doing is setting the infrastructure for the million settlers that they want to attract to the West Bank,” Ofran said. “Without roads, they cannot do it. If you have a road, eventually, almost naturally, the settlers will come.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
Madagascar Protesters Pause Capital Marches, Vow Stronger Return
Youth-led anti-government protest organisers in Madagascar paused marches in the capital Antananarivo for 24 hours on Thursday, citing concerns over the health and exhaustion of demonstrators — though protests continued in other parts of the island nation.
Inspired by similar youth-led “Gen Z” protests in Kenya and Nepal, the rallies mark the largest wave of unrest in Madagascar in years and pose a significant challenge to President Andry Rajoelina, who was re-elected in 2023.
The United Nations says at least 22 people have been killed and more than 100 injured so far in the week-long protests. The government rejects those figures.
Stronger Comeback
“This is not a retreat but a strategy: we will come back together more united, stronger,” Gen Z Madagascar, the protest movement’s main leadership, said in a Facebook post, announcing the temporary suspension of protests in Antananarivo.
A government spokesperson did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Public Anger Over Water Shortages, Power Cuts
Rajoelina dissolved the government late on Monday, but the move has failed to quell public anger, which first erupted last week in the capital over worsening water shortages and power cuts.
The protesters are demanding Rajoelina’s resignation and the dissolution of the election commission, the upper chamber Senate, and the country’s top court.
Protests continued outside the capital on Thursday, with hundreds marching in Toliara, some 925 km (575 miles) south of Antananarivo, chanting “Rajoelina Out” and carrying banners denouncing the president, footage aired by privately-owned Radio Télévision Siteny showed.
In Diego Suarez, 950 km (590 miles) north of the capital, protesters were also marching under police escort, according to privately-owned media outlet Fitaproduction.
Reliant on agriculture and tourism, the Indian Ocean nation remains one of Africa’s poorest.
Entrenched Poverty, Unaccountable Elites
Since Madagascar won independence from France in 1960, income per capita had fallen by 45% by 2020, according to the World Bank, which blames the poor economic performance on tight control of the economy and government by a small, unaccountable elite and on a lack of competition and transparency.
Some demonstrators have carried flags depicting a grinning skull wearing a straw hat, in reference to a pirate flag from a Japanese manga that has become a popular symbol among young protesters around the world.
“The protests are not merely about utilities or governance failures; they are a rejection of a political order that has remained fundamentally unchanged for decades,” Ketakandriana Rafitoson, the global vice-chair of Transparency International, wrote in a briefing on the crisis.
“Elite networks continue to capture state institutions, siphon public resources, and weaponize poverty to maintain control,” wrote Rafitoson, who is also Malagasy.
The Senate convened on Thursday to discuss potential nominees for the post of prime minister after failing to reach consensus on a candidate during earlier deliberations.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Russia: Washington, NATO Regularly Share Intelligence With Kyiv
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Ukraine already receives regular intelligence support from the United States and NATO. The statement came in response to reports suggesting Washington planned to provide Kyiv with information on Russian energy facilities.
The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that the U.S. would provide Ukraine with intelligence on long-range energy infrastructure targets inside Russia as it also weighs whether to send missiles to Kyiv that could be used in such strikes.
“The United States of America transmits intelligence to Ukraine on a regular basis online,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“The supply and use of the entire infrastructure of NATO and the United States to collect and transfer intelligence to Ukrainians is obvious.”
Washington has long been sharing intelligence with Kyiv but has not openly declared its participation in striking Russian energy installations before and the U.S. has been wary of becoming directly involved in attacks on Russia.
Trump’s Shift In Stance Towards Russia
The White House did not immediately comment on the reports, which come amid a hardening of U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric towards Russia less than two months after he hosted Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska.
Trump has expressed deep frustration with Putin’s refusal to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to advance in eastern Ukraine, while some European leaders have complained of regular incursions by Russian drones into their airspace. Moscow denies intentionally violating NATO airspace.
Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russian refineries over the past two months, disrupting processing and prompting a sharp increase in crude exports from Russia, which is already the world’s second-largest oil exporter.
The Wall Street Journal said the reported U.S. move on intelligence sharing would make it easier for Ukraine to hit infrastructure such as refineries, pipelines and power plants with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of revenue and oil.
The U.S. is also currently weighing a Ukrainian request for Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles) – easily enough to hit Moscow and most of European Russia if fired from Ukraine.
After Ukraine fired U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles into Russia last year, Putin ordered a hypersonic missile be fired at Ukraine.
At the time he said Russia reserves the right to strike at military installations in countries that let Ukraine use their missiles to hit Russia. He also said Moscow could deploy its own missiles within striking distance of Western states if Russia is hit.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Two Killed In Yom Kippur Attack Outside UK Synagogue, Armed Suspect Shot By Police
On Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, violence erupted near a synagogue in England when an assailant drove a car into pedestrians and fatally stabbed a security guard, leaving at least two people dead, according to British police.
Greater Manchester Police said the suspect, who was believed to be carrying a bomb, was shot after they rushed to the scene at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall district of the city in northern England.
Police responded after a witness said a car had rammed members of the public and that one man had been stabbed. The suspect was believed to be dead but officers could not confirm this “due to safety issues surrounding suspicious items on his person”, with a bomb disposal unit called to the scene.
‘He Has A Bomb!’
A video shared on social media showed police shooting a man inside the synagogue’s perimeter, while another man lay on the floor in a pool of blood, appearing to wear a traditional Jewish head covering.
“He has a bomb, go away!” an armed police officer shouted to onlookers as he tried to wave away members of the public.
As well as the two people who were confirmed dead, three others were in a serious condition.
After the attack, police were seen ushering a large group of mostly Jewish elderly men – some in tears, many looking shocked – away from the synagogue. Some were wearing white robes, others were in suits and wearing a skullcap.
“I’m appalled by the attack at a synagogue in Crumpsall,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said as he rushed away early from a European political gathering in Copenhagen to return to Britain to chair an emergency meeting.
“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,” Starmer said.
Police said a large number of people had been worshipping inside the synagogue at the time and the building had since been evacuated.
“We are grateful to the member of the public whose quick response to what they witnessed allowed our swift action, and as a result the offender was prevented from entering the synagogue,” a police spokesperson said.
Britain’s King Charles said he was “deeply shocked and saddened” to learn of the attack, “especially on such a significant day for the Jewish community”.
Reckless Stabbing
A neighbour, Chava Lewin, said she had been told that the car had been driving erratically before crashing into the gates of the synagogue.
“The second he got out of the car he started stabbing anyone near him. He went for the security guard and tried to break into the synagogue,” she told British media. “Someone barricaded the door. Everyone is in utter shock.”
Starmer said that additional police were being deployed to synagogues across the country, adding “we will do everything to keep our Jewish community safe”.
Yom Kippur is the most sacred day on the Jewish calendar when even many non-regular synagogue-goers take time to pray and all road traffic stops in Israel.
Britain reported its second worst year in modern times for antisemitism in 2024 with more than 3,500 incidents being recorded, reflecting sustained levels of hatred towards Jews, the Community Security Trust, which provides security to Jewish organisations across Britain, said earlier this year.
Levels of antisemitism rose to record levels in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian enclave.
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Britain has suffered a number of Islamist terrorist attacks, with the worst being the July 2005 suicide bombings in the London transport network which killed 52 people.
More recently, a 2017 suicide bomb attack at the end of an Ariana Grande pop concert in Manchester killed 22 people and injured hundreds.
British police have in recent years also warned about the threat from organised far-right terrorism.
(With inputs from Reuters)
India’s New Consumer Boom: Women, Welfare, Wallets
On 22 September, India set in motion GST 2.0. Among other things, it entailed a slashing of rates on most daily consumption items and a range of aspirational goods like entry level cars.
Interestingly, the first week’s sales witnessed a surge. The question is whether this is a GST sugar high? Or is this the tipping point of a new trend in India consumer economy?
An unleashing of the Indian consumer.
Remember India’s consumer story has been undergoing a makeover for the last decade and more. We are seeing women step forward as independent spenders, the emergence of the neo-middle class with raging aspirations, and most significantly, over 50 crore people lifted out of abject poverty becoming stakeholders in the marketplace.
In this episode of Capital Calculus, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Madhurima Bhatia of IPSOS to put the spotlight on this compelling makeover of India’s consumer economy — the rise of the new consumer. IPSOS is a global market research company with a big footprint in India.
Cameroon Infant Deaths Expose Impact Of US Malaria Aid Cuts
The death of nine-month-old Mohamat due to malaria in northern Cameroon after days of fever and delayed care reflects a surge in fatalities linked to the United States’ foreign aid cuts, according to local health officials.
Before the cuts, Mohamat might have been diagnosed earlier by one of more than 2,000 U.S.-funded community health workers who would travel over rough dirt roads to reach the region’s remotest villages.
And at the health centre, he might have been treated with injectable artesunate, a life-saving drug for severe malaria paid for by U.S. funds that is now in short supply. But the centre had none to give out.
Reuters travelled to northern Cameroon – where the U.S. had played a leading role in the malaria response for nearly a decade – to document how the sudden cuts are contributing to delayed malaria diagnoses, inadequate treatment and a growing number of deaths.
This story is based on interviews with more than 20 doctors, nurses, community health workers, residents and former U.S. officials involved in malaria programming.
Mohamat’s father, sorghum and banana farmer Alhadji Madou Goni, is mourning a son he had hoped would one day escape poverty.
“I feel so sad about my loss. I hope no one suffers from this (malaria) again,” Goni, 30, told Reuters as he sat outside his home, his wife next to him holding prayer beads.
“Since there is hardship here, and people don’t have the means, we hope aid comes.”
US Malaria Programme Disrupted
Upon taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump paused all foreign aid, including the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), launched in 2005 by George W. Bush. The PMI is credited with helping to save 11.7 million lives and prevent 2.1 billion malaria cases.
A limited waiver issued in February allowed life-saving work on malaria to continue, but PMI’s 30 partner countries – most of them in Africa – have reported major disruptions linked to the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the main implementer of PMI-funded programmes.
In Cameroon’s Far North region, where Goni lives, the cuts stripped support for PMI-funded community health workers who distributed prevention tools like bed nets and identified serious cases.
PMI funded half – 1,492 out of 2,824 – of all community health workers in the region, said Dr Jean-Pierre Kidwang, coordinator of the regional technical group for malaria control.
The support included a monthly stipend of 15,000 CFA francs ($26), a transport allowance, bicycles and clothing.
Nearly all of the U.S.-funded community health workers are now out of service. Prosper Laurent Messe Fouda, head of planning, monitoring and evaluation at the National Malaria Control Programme, confirmed that 2,105 out of the 2,354 U.S.-funded workers in Cameroon’s Far North and North regions were no longer working.
Malaria Deaths Now Rising
PMI made Cameroon a focus country in 2017, and recorded malaria deaths in Far North dropped from 1,519 in 2020 to 653 in 2024 – but now appear to be rising, Kidwang said.
“With PMI funding, we moved from a mortality rate of 17% to bring the situation down to 8%,” Kidwang said.
“Now, with the September–October peak underway, available trends indicate that fatalities are rising sharply, even though official data has yet to be released,” he said, citing a figure of 15% for the first half of 2025.
“We may get to a point where all the gains against malaria are reversed.”
The Trump administration says it is reforming foreign aid that did not align with its “America First” agenda, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said repeatedly that no one has died as a result of the cuts.
Trump has said the U.S. pays disproportionately for foreign aid and wants others to pay more. Between 2010 and 2023, the U.S. contributed an average of 37% of funding for malaria programmes, the World Health Organisation says.
This year, the U.S. has cancelled more than 80% of aid contracts, but said life-saving work, including for malaria, would continue. Yet organisations on the ground and the WHO in April said “critical gaps” remained in the malaria response after the cancellations.
Going forward, Trump’s initial budget request for fiscal year 2026 included a 47% cut to PMI’s budget from the just below $800 million it had hit in recent years, though Congress will have the final say later this year.
The “America First Global Health Strategy” Rubio announced in September stated some commitments to reducing malaria mortality and incidence, but made no mention of PMI or budgets. A State Department spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that the programme would continue.
Anne Linn, former senior community health advisor for PMI, told Reuters that before the January cuts, the programme supported 115,000 community health workers across 30 countries. That all disappeared, she said, although it is unclear how much funding has since resumed and where governments and non-profits have stepped in to fill urgent gaps.
The State Department spokesperson said in the future it would provide support to fight malaria through bilateral agreements with partner countries, and committed to maintaining 100% of current U.S. funding for commodities such as nets and drugs and frontline health workers in fiscal year 2026, before asking governments to co-invest. They gave no details of their current annual budget.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Taipei Proposes ‘Taiwan Model’ For US Investment
Taiwan is exploring the possibility of a high-tech strategic partnership with the US, which is keen on boosting Taiwanese investment, the island’s chief tariff negotiator said on Thursday, providing an update on ongoing discussions with Washington.
Taiwan, home to the world’s biggest contract chipmaker TSMC, runs a large trade surplus with the United States. The island’s exports to the US are currently subject to a 20% tariff, a figure Taipei’s government is seeking to cut.
‘Taiwan Model’
Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who is leading the tariff talks with Washington, told reporters in Taipei she was hopeful both sides could reach a consensus on expanding investment in the United States through a “Taiwan model”.
This would not involve relocating supply chains but rather extending and expanding US production capacity, said Cheng, who returned this week from the latest round of talks.
The government views the model for investing in the country as “industrial investment planning” coupled with government support measures such as export credit guarantees and joint Taiwan-US development of industrial clusters, she added.
“The current negotiation focus is that the United States expects us to expand investments and engage in supply chain cooperation,” Cheng said.
Neither the US Commerce Department nor the Office of the United States Trade Representative has responded to requests for comment on the talks.
The US government went into shutdown on Wednesday.
TSMC, whose business is surging on strong demand for artificial intelligence applications, is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in the US state of Arizona, though the bulk of its production will remain in Taiwan.
No Plan To Shift Base
Cheng, who said TSMC did not take part in the latest talks, repeated that a proposal floated in US media by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick for a 50-50 split in making chips is not something Taiwan would agree to and was not brought up.
“We can clearly say that we understand that the US side’s hope is to increase domestic production capability to satisfy US domestic demand,” she added.
The aim of Taiwan’s industry is to “remain rooted in Taiwan and deploy around the world, and then have bilateral strategic cooperation,” Cheng said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Zelenskyy Says Russia Deliberately Hit Facility, Cutting Power To Chornobyl Plant
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleged that Russia had intentionally launched an attack cutting power to the decommissioned Chornobyl nuclear power station, warning that the move was aimed at creating a risk of nuclear incidents.
Zelenskyy also said Moscow was doing nothing to fix the cutoff of external power to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, now in its eighth day, and was taking advantage of the “weak” position of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General, Rafael Grossi.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said earlier that Russian attacks had cut power to the Chornobyl station, including a containment unit erected to minimise contamination from the world’s biggest nuclear accident in 1986. Energy officials said strikes also cut off power to 307,000 customers in the nearby Chernihiv region.
Zelenskyy said more than 20 Russian drones had been deployed in the attack on the town of Slavutych that cut power to the nearby Chornobyl plant for three hours.
“The Russians could not have been unaware that a strike on facilities in Slavutych would have such consequences for Chornobyl,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that large quantities of spent fuel remained there.
“And this was a deliberate attack in which they used more than 20 drones, according to preliminary assessments, Russian-Iranian Shaheds.”
IAEA Suggests ‘Fluctuations’
The IAEA, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, issued a statement acknowledging that the plant had experienced “fluctuations” after losing its external power connection, but that alternative lines were used initially and power was later restored.
Russia has not yet commented on the incident.
Ukraine’s energy ministry statement made no mention of any possible increased risk of radioactive release as a result of the power cutoff to the defunct Chornobyl plant due to the Russian attacks on Slavutych.
“As a result of power surges, the new safe confinement facility, which isolates the destroyed fourth power unit of the Chornobyl station and prevents the release of radioactive materials into the environment, was left without power supply,” the ministry said.
After the Chornobyl station’s fourth reactor exploded in April 1986 and spread radioactivity throughout Europe, Soviet engineers hurriedly erected a “sarcophagus” around the reactor.
This was replaced by a new confinement structure in 2016, while the plant’s other three reactors were gradually taken out of service.
The plant was briefly occupied by Russian forces at the beginning of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. And a Russian drone pierced the confinement structure’s roof in February.
Fixing The External Power Line At Zaporizhzhia
Zelenskyy also again blamed Russia’s military for the cutoff of the external power line last week at the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine.
“And the Russians are doing absolutely nothing to fix the situation or allow Ukrainian specialists to restore the external power supply to the plant,” he said.
Russia, he said, was “deliberately creating the risk of radiation incidents, exploiting, unfortunately, the weak position of the IAEA and its Director General, Rafael Grossi, as well as the dispersion of world attention.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia was doing everything to ensure the Zaporizhzhia plant’s safety. He said it had come under repeated fire from Ukrainian forces.
Russia seized the plant in the early weeks of the war and each side regularly accuses the other of endangering nuclear safety.
Zelenskyy on Tuesday had said that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant was “critical”.
Grossi, head of the IAEA, responded by saying there was no immediate danger from the power cutoff as emergency diesel generators were in operation. But he added that the external lines needed to be fixed.
(With inputs from Reuters)