Zelenskiy says Russia targeting nuclear plant

BLOOMBERG

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused the Kremlin of deliberately targeting the country’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after the latest Russian missile barrage knocked out its supply for the sixth time before power was restored.
“This is a critical situation” and “means, by definition, that Russia cannot be a bona fide participant in any relations in the nuclear sphere,” Zelenskiy said in his evening address. “The sooner the Russian nuclear industry is subjected to sanctions, the safer the world will be,” he added.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier condemned what she called Russia’s “indiscriminate” missile attacks on Ukraine and said the Kremlin’s “deliberate targeting” of civilians and energy infrastructure is a war crime.
Russia said it sanctioned 144 public figures from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania including ministers, lawmakers and journalists, in response to what the foreign ministry in Moscow said was “active lobbying” against Russia and “interference in our internal affairs.”
As well as helping arm Ukraine, the 144 people are involved in the “demolition” of Soviet-era monuments, the “persecution” of Russian-speaking citizens, the “rewriting of history” and “the glorification of Nazism,” the ministry said in a statement. It did not identify them by name.
Meanwhile, Turkey abruptly stopped the transit of sanctioned goods to Russia this month as the European Union and the US pressure allies to support measures imposed over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The country has emerged as one of the havens for Russian wealth and a center for sourcing goods over the past year. Turkey’s exports to Russia rose to $9.3 billion in 2022 from $5.8 billion a year earlier.