KYIV, Ukraine—Fierce fighting rumbled on in east Ukraine, as Moscow denied Kyiv’s claims that Russia was preparing to abandon a nuclear-power plant in the country’s south that it has occupied since March.
In the eastern Donetsk region, Russia is struggling to seize the city of Bakhmut and achieve a symbolic victory after being on the back foot for months. Recent successful Ukrainian offensives have returned most of the northeastern Kharkiv region and the key southern regional capital of Kherson to Kyiv’s control.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Monday that Russia was preparing to transfer forces stationed in Belarus, near Ukraine’s northern border with Moscow’s ally, onto occupied Ukrainian territory to shore up units that have suffered losses while fighting to stall Ukraine’s advance.
Russia’s efforts to strengthen defenses in occupied areas come as it continues to stutter in its military campaign, now more than nine months old. The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear-energy company Energoatom,
Petro Kotin,
said Sunday there were signs Russia might be preparing to abandon the Zaporizhzhia nuclear-power plant, Europe’s largest, which it seized in March.
“In recent weeks we’ve been getting information that signs have appeared that they may be preparing to leave,” Mr. Kotin said in an interview with Ukrainian television.
The Kremlin on Monday denied that there were any Russian preparations to vacate the territory of the plant, which Russia has heavily fortified with troops and armor and which has long been a target of regular shelling blamed by both sides on each other.
“There’s no point searching for signs where there are none and there can be none,” Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov
said.
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