Putin this week illegally claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory,including the Zaporizhzhia region that is home Europe’s largest nuclear power plant,whose reactors were shut down last month.

Fighting near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has alarmed the UN’s atomic energy watchdog. An accident there could release 10 times the potentially lethal radiation than the world’s worst nuclear disaster,at Chernobyl in Ukraine 36 years ago,Ukrainian Environmental Protection Minister Ruslan Strilets said on Friday.

“The situation with the occupation,shelling,and mining of the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants by Russian troops is causing consequences that will have a global character,” Strilets told The Associated Press.

The city of Zaporizhzhia,the region’s administrative centre,is located a 53-kilometer flight distance from the nuclear plant and remains under Ukrainian control. To cement Russia’s claim to the region,Russian forces bombarded the city with S-300 missiles on Thursday.

Russia was reported to have converted the S-300 from its original use as a long-range antiaircraft weapon into a missile for ground attacks because of a shortage of other,more suitable weapons.

Ukrainian authorities said the death toll from the strikes rose to 12 on Friday,while another 12 people who were wounded in the bombardment of apartments remained hospitalised.

Missiles also struck the city overnight,injuring one person,Zaporizhzhia Governor Oleksandr Starukh said. Russia also used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones there for the first time and damaged two infrastructure facilities,he said.

With its army losing ground to a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south and east,Russia has increasingly deployed Iranian-made drones to attack Ukrainian targets. The unmanned,disposable “kamikaze drones” are cheaper and less sophisticated than missiles but are effective at damaging ground targets.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia’s use of the explosive-packed drones was unlikely to affect the course of the conflict significantly.

“They have used many drones against civilian targets in rear areas,likely hoping to generate nonlinear effects through terror. Such efforts are not succeeding,” analysts at the think tank wrote.

The US has no new intelligence on Russia’s nuclear threats,the White House said on Friday,after President JoeBiden referenced a nuclear “Armageddon” on Thursday.

The US also does not have indications that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons,and sees no reason to change its current nuclear posture,White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“He was reinforcing what we have been saying,which is how seriously we take these threats about nuclear weapons,” Jean-Pierre said. “We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture,nor do we have indications that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons.”

In other Moscow-annexed areas,Russia’s Defence Ministry reported that its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near the city of Lyman and retaken three villages elsewhere in the eastern Donetsk region. The ministry said Russian forces also had prevented Ukrainian troops from advancing on several villages in the Kherson region.

Some of the Russian military’s equipment and weapons is getting into Ukrainians’ hands. Ukraine’s ability to capture and put back into service Russian tanks and other equipment has become an important factor in its counteroffensive.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Friday that Ukrainian forces have captured at least 440 tanks and about 650 armoured vehicles since the war started February 24.

“The failure of Russian crews to destroy intact equipment before withdrawing or surrendering highlights their poor state of training and low levels of battle discipline,” the British said. “With Russian formations under severe strain in several sectors and increasingly demoralised troops,Russia will likely continue to lose heavy weaponry.”

Putin ordered a partial mobilisation of Russian army reservists last month to reinforce manpower on the front lines in Ukraine. Mistakes have dogged the call-up,however,and tens of thousands of would-be fighters have fled Russia.

Russia has been so desperate for troop reinforcements that it’s turned to unusual sources. The Ukrainian military said Friday that 500 former criminals have been mobilised to reinforce Russian ranks in the eastern Donetsk region,where Ukrainian forces have retaken some territory. Officers drawn from law enforcement are commanding the new units,the military said.

Russian state news agency Tass reported Friday that a court in the Russian city of Penza had dismissed the first case against a Russian man called up to serve but who refused. The 32-year-old man’s lawyers had argued that the law under which he was charged applies only to conscription evaders,not those subject to the partial mobilisation.

In another sign of trouble,reports have surfaced of poor training and supplies for the new troops. The supply problems appeared to be so severe that at least two Russian cities — St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod — announced Friday they were cancelling their Russian New Year’s and Christmas celebrations and redirecting the money saved to buy supplies for mobilised troops.

Under increasing pressure from his own supporters and others,Putin continued reshuffling his military’s leadership. The state-run Tass news agency reported a new commander was put in place in Russia’s eastern military district.

AP,Reuters

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