Fire breaks out at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was on fire early Friday local time following a Russian attack, according to Ukrainian officials. If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! 

"Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a post on Twitter. "Fire has already broke out. Russians must immediately cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone."

Mayor Dmytro Orlov of the nearby town of Energodar said that Russian and local Ukrainian forces have engaged in fierce fighting, resulting in casualties, according to Reuters.

“As a result of continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on fire,” Orlov said, according to Reuters. He added that the situation poses a threat to world security.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in post on Twitter that it was aware of the reported attack on the plant.

IAEA is aware of reports of shelling at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), in contact with Ukrainian authorities about situation, the agency tweeted.

Ukrainian authorities wrote a letter hours earlier to Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director Deneral of the IAEA, sounding the alarm that Russian tanks had broken through ‘the block-post’ into Enerhodar.

“The battle is going on in the town of Enerhodar and on the road to the ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) site,” the letter read, describing the situation as critical, according to the agency.

This comes after Ukrainian officials warned days earlier that Russian troops had increased their military presence near the plant and pointed a multiple rocket launcher at it. Ukraine's ministry of internal affairs said the country's military was headed to the region to defend the plant.

“The armed forces, national guard and civilian militia will do anything to prevent a catastrophe, we are ready to destroy the enemy. But we have to be ready for anything,” Vadim Denisenko, advisor to the minister of internal affairs, said at the time.

Russian forces previously took control of the Chernobyl nuclear site last Thursday, less than 24 hours after the invasion of Ukraine began.

Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops around the still-operating Ukrainian nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhya — Europe’s largest — led to stark warnings from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ABC reported.

Any damage to the facilities, either from the fighting or from interruption of normal operations “could have severe consequences, aggravating human suffering and causing environmental harm,” Rafael Grossi, Director of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, told ABC.

“There is nothing normal,” Grossi added, “about the circumstances under which the professionals at Ukraine's four nuclear power plants are managing to keep the reactors that produce half of Ukraine's electricity working."

Ukrainian officials have asked for a 30-kilometer (18-mile) safety zone around nuclear plants.

Today we’ll look at another rising risk from the fighting — this time in Africa. Then we’ll turn to the passage of a pivotal piece of legislation that could allow victims of water contamination at a Marine Corps base have their day in court.

 

Russian hackers may try to block West's access to SWIFT

Ex-IDF Unit 8200 Chief and Team 8 Co-founder Nadav Zafrir, say that in a worst case scenario, Russian hackers may try to block the West from extracting natural gas and from access to the SWIFT banking system in response to sanctions against it.

Referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the spin-off conflict with the West in a speech at the cybertech conference in Tel Aviv, Zafrir said, “We don’t know how this is going to unfold. We do know that the Russians probably have, excluding the West, the best cyber capabilities, defensive, but also offensive.”

“Russia may to say to itself, if you are sanctioning our economy, maybe “we, the Russians, can make sure you cannot extract your gas either. If we cannot use SWIFT, we can take you off your SWIFT system as well.”

Earlier, former Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) Director Yigal Unna called Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine frightening.

Unna said, “As we see what is happen now in central Europe, it is more than disturbing, it is frightening. Cyber war is happening as we speak. We haven’t seen the worst yet.”

Describing Russian cyberattacks, he said “We are seeing ‘wipers’ (cyberattacks on websites), attacks against civilians, civilian entities and critical infrastructure, all the things we build and defend as nations.”

He warned that due to war clouds and the fog of war… we still do not see all of the consequences of Russian cyberattacks.

Next, Unna said that the rise in ransomware attacks, the amount of extortion money being demanded by hackers and the rise in the number of victims who are paying the ransoms is disturbing.

He cautioned that Israel is behind many countries in terms of formal legislation and regulation in the cyber sphere (though in the past INCD officials have said that Israel has achieved a lot through informal moves.)

Unna complimented, “All six agencies dealing with cyber security, including his agency, the IDF’s multiple units, the Mossad and the Shin Bet on “working together to win.”

In addition, he said, “Whatever worked yesterday won’t work today or tomorrow.”

He spoke disparagingly of cybersecurity corporate officers who ignored warnings on Thursday of impending cyber-attacks, saying they would deal with it after the weekend,

The attack may come before the weekend, exclaimed Unna, adding if your CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) works only ‘working hours’, well it is 24/7.”

He also took to task the slow pace at which companies deal with public government or company warnings of vulnerabilities on software, saying that the good guys take around 14-21 days to fix publicized cyber gaps, whereas the bad guys need only around nine days to exploit the gap.

“That is five to 12 days too long,” he said.

Also at the conference, President Isaac Herzog complimented Israeli cyber companies for protecting millions around the world from cyber-attacks.

Herzog said that Israel needed to move at the same fast pace as malicious actors in always improving its cyber defenses and resilience.

Also, at the conference, CybergymIEC announced new moves to enhance its connectivity with the Israel Electric Company which will also increase the company’s ability to market and sell its proprietary cyber technology globally.

Britain to ban Russian linked ships from its ports

Britain said on Tuesday it had passed a law that would ban all ships that have any connection to Russia from entering its ports. Britain had said on Monday that it wanted all ports to refuse entry to ships that were Russian flagged, registered or controlled while it drew up new legislation.

"We've just become the first nation to pass a law involving a total ban of all ships with any Russian connection whatsoever from entering British ports," Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Tuesday for more international sanctions against Russia after what he said was a "barbaric" attack on the city of Kharkiv.

"Barbaric Russian missile strikes on the central Freedom Square and residential districts of Kharkiv. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is unable to break Ukraine down. He commits more war crimes out of fury, murders innocent civilians," Kuleba said on social media.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky officially applied on Monday to join the European Union, with the application being on its way to Brussels for processing, Ukrainian President's Office deputy head Andrij Sybiha wrote on Facebook.

In response, the heads of state for eight different EU member states – Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic – pushed for vastly expediting Ukraine's admission into the bloc. 

"We call on EU member states to consolidate highest political support to Ukraine and enable the EU institutions to conduct steps to immediately grant Ukraine an EU candidate country status and open the process of negotiations," the leaders wrote, as noted on the official website of the Lithuanian president.

This follows Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger telling Politico that Ukraine should have a "special track" towards EU membership.

“They fight for themselves, they fight for us — they fight for freedom,” Heger said told Politico. “We have to realize that they are protecting our system, our values and we have to be together with them. So there is no time to hesitate on this.”

Overall, support for Ukraine is strong in the EU, as noted in a recent op-ed in The Jerusalem Post by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

"This is a matter of life and death," Borrell noted. "I am preparing an emergency package to support the Ukrainian armed forces in their fight."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leye told Euronews Sunday that Ukraine is "one of us and we want them in the European Union."

Several European nations have already sent considerable funds and munitions towards Ukraine, as well as levying sanctions against Moscow, as have their allies abroad such as the US.

As the war enters its sixth day, around 350,000 people have entered Poland from Ukraine since Russia invaded the country, a Polish deputy interior minister said on Tuesday.

"Over the last 24 hours 100,000 people crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border," Maciej Wasik told public broadcaster Polskie Radio 1. "In total, since Thursday, there have already been 350,000 refugees."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday morning that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had offered his country more support in the form of sanctions and weapons.

"In our call, Secretary Blinken affirmed that the US support for Ukraine remains unfaltering," Kuleba said on Twitter. "I underscored that Ukraine craves for peace, but as long as we are under Russia's assault we need more sanctions and weapons. The US Secretary of State assured me of both. We coordinated further steps."

The prospects of a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine crisis are slim at the moment, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said on Tuesday.

Asked on LBC Radio whether Russian billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich, who has accepted a Ukrainian request to help negotiate an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, could be key to the solution, Raab responded: "Who knows?"

Ukrainian crisis being fueled by owners of military complexes

Reportedly, Ukrainian ambassador Oksana Markarova told a bipartisan group of senators Monday that her country needs more help from the United States and could run out of military supplies to fend off a Russian invasion.   

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, who attended the meeting with roughly a dozen Republican and Democratic colleagues, said everyone in the room was unified in support of doing more for the country, which Russian troops invaded Thursday on several fronts.  

“It’s no secret they need more help. They’ve got the weapons they need right now but they’re going to run out of what they need soon so we’ve got to get a supplemental [spending bill] passed quickly,” Chris Murphy told reporters after the meeting.   

Murphy said a looming humanitarian crisis along the Polish-Ukrainian border and dwindling military supplies are putting pressure on Congress to act quickly.  

Senators say the need to pass an emergency spending bill to provide weapons and humanitarian aid is becoming more important than passing sanctions legislation, something that senators were negotiating before the Presidents’ Day recess.  

“I think you’re talking about something in the neighborhood of US$10 billion to do the job,” said Murphy, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “This is the most dangerous moment since the Cuban missile crisis.”

Markarova confirmed reports that Russian forces are increasingly targeting civilian buildings and warned that civilian casualties are likely to mount.   

“She talked about two five-story buildings being hit today full of civilians,” Murphy said.  

Ben Cardin, who also attended the meeting, said Ukrainian forces are “well-organized, doing the best they can but they need additional help.”  

“They’re managing their equipment as best they can. They do need more help, absolutely. They certainly need more anti-tank and anti-aircraft type equipment because the numbers from Russia are so large,” he said.  

Other Ukrainian leaders on Monday pressed the House Ukrainian Caucus to back a no-fly zone over the country, warning that casualties could mushroom without stronger foreign intervention. 

However, senators who spoke to reporters after meeting with Markarova said they did not hear her request that the US and its NATO allies impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which could risk a direct military confrontation with US forces.  

Murphy earlier in the day warned that trying to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be dangerous.  

“There’s been a lot of loose talk from smart people about ‘close air support’ and ‘no fly zones’ for Ukraine. Let’s just be clear what that is — the US and Russia at war. It’s a bad idea and Congress would never authorize it,” he tweeted.  

Murphy later told reporters that the military conflict could quickly escalate in a dangerous way.  

Schumer after the meeting said there’s strong bipartisan support to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invaders.  

“In that room, from one end to the other, we want to help Ukraine in every way that we can and they’re valiant. They’re amazing and we’re exploring all the ways that we can help them,” he said. 

But one major potential complication is the need to pass an omnibus spending bill to fund the US federal government beyond March 11.  

“The problem is we need a budget to get a supplemental,” Murphy said. “We’ve got to get serious in the next couple days about getting a budget done so that we can have a supplemental to that budget.”  

“I’m worried that our petty fights over the border are going to prevent us from getting a deal on a budget and thus a deal on the supplemental spending bill for Ukraine,” he added. 

That could delay congressional action on more assistance for Ukraine.  

Richard Shelby, the top-ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said he wants a supplemental spending package for Ukraine to move separately from an omnibus spending package.  

 “I think it ought not to be part of the omnibus but ought to be moving at the same time. Because it’s a separate thing, we’re talking about emergency money as opposed to the regular order,” he said.   

Asked if the omnibus spending package can get done by the March 11 deadline, Shelby said, “I don’t know.” 

“We’re still talking. We’re making progress. Sometimes it’s a step forward and a step sideways,” he said.