Zelensky warns Russians against firing from nuclear plant as Ukraine strikes bridge near Kherson

School damaged by Russian shelling in Zaporizhzhia Oblast

(Image credit: Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

published 14 August 2022

Russian troops firing at or from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine will become a "special target" for Ukraine forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.

"Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots using the plant as cover, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army," he warned in his nightly address.

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Further south and west, a Ukrainian strike damaged the last usable bridge spanning the Dnipro River near Kherson, a local Ukrainian official said Saturday. Serhiy Khlan, a deputy to the Kherson Regional Council, wrote on Facebook that without the bridges, Russian forces occupying Kherson "no longer have any capability to fully turn over their equipment." The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War assessed that the loss of those bridges would likely leave the Russians unable "to defend themselves against even limited Ukrainian counterattacks."

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Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.

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