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Russia said on Friday it was sending reinforcements to the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces have announced major gains as part of a broader counter-offensive.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meanwhile warned of “dramatic” developments at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine where recent fighting had “compromised the safe operation” of the facility.

In the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials have exhumed two bodies in a village recently recaptured from Russia, part of an investigation into a possible war crime.

Grakove village was the scene of fierce fighting in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion.

Russian state media broadcast footage of columns of tanks, support vehicles and artillery travelling along paved roads and dirt tracks in Kharkiv region, emblazoned with the letter “Z”, the symbol of Moscow’s invasion.

A Moscow-installed official, Vitaliy Ganchev, said in televised remarks that “fierce battles” were under way near the town of Balakliya, which Ukraine said it had recaptured on Thursday.

“We do not control Balakliya. Attempts are being made to dislodge the Ukrainian forces, but there are fierce battles, and our troops are being held back on the approaches,” Ganchev said.

“Now Russian reserves have been brought there, our troops are fighting back,” he added.

– Fresh shelling of nuclear plant –

IAEA Secretary General Rafael Grossi warned Friday that fresh shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country had caused a blackout in the nearby town of Energodar.

That jeopardised the safe running of the plant, he said.

“This is completely unacceptable. It cannot stand,” he said, insisting on “the immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area”.

Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency, told AFP that Russian forces had tortured staff at the nuclear power station, and that at least two people had been killed.

“Two people were beaten to death. We do not know where about ten people are now, they were taken (by the Russians) and after that we have no information about their whereabouts,” he said.

In the recently recaptured village of Grakove, where Ukrainian officials exhumed two bodies Friday, resident Sergiy Lutsay spoke to journalists about what he had seen.

Russian soldiers had forced him to bury the bodies at gunpoint soon after the war began, he said.

“They came to my house, I was with my father, aged 70,” he told journalists. “I was scared that they would threaten him.”

“They told me to come to dig a hole.”

He would not confirm a police statement that said that at least one of the two men killed had had his ears cut off.

– ‘Huge costs’ for Russia: Blinken –

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia’s push to reinforce Kharkiv showed Moscow was paying “huge costs” in its bid to capture and then hold Ukrainian territory.

“There are a huge number of Russian forces that are in Ukraine and unfortunately, tragically, horrifically President (Vladimir) Putin has demonstrated that he will throw a lot of people into this at huge cost to Russia,” he said.

He was speaking during a visit to Brussels on Friday for talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

A day earlier he paid a surprise visit to Kyiv during which he unveiled another $2.8 billion in military aid and hailed Ukraine’s “clear and real” frontline gains.

Late on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky shared footage showing camouflage-clad Ukrainian soldiers holding his country’s blue-and-yellow flag over Balakliya.

The town, which had been under Russian control for around six months and had a pre-war population of around 30,000 people, fell early on to Russian forces who invaded in February.

Now, Russian officials in the Kharkiv region say they are evacuating civilians towards Russia “until the situation stabilises”.

On the Ukrainian side however, Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov warned people not to return to newly recaptured areas while “cleaning and demining” took place.

– Donetsk shelling –

Zelensky said Thursday that in total Ukraine’s army had clawed back some 1,000 square kilometres (nearly 400 square miles) from Russian forces since the beginning of the month.

In the area around Kharkiv city, Ukrainian forces penetrated 50 kilometres (30 miles) beyond Russian lines and took back more than 20 towns and villages, military officials said.

The counter-offensive has shown progress in the south of the country too, particularly in the Kherson region, as well as in Kharkiv and in the industrial Donbas province in the east.

“It’s very tough, but we are moving forward,” commander-in-chief General Valeriy Zaluzhny said Friday.

Venezuela and Colombia said Friday they will reopen their shared land border later this month and resume commercial flights after renewing diplomatic ties severed in 2019.

The countries reestablished formal ties on August 29 under the leadership of Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolas Maduro and Colombia’s new leftist leader, Gustavo Petro.

Both assigned ambassadors to each other’s countries, and announced they also wanted to restore military cooperation.

Venezuela severed ties with its neighbor in 2019 after Colombia under right-wing former president Ivan Duque — along with dozens of other countries — rejected Maduro’s 2018 re-election and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader instead.

Embassies and consulates in both countries were closed, and flights between the neighbors grounded.

An exodus of international airlines from Venezuela began already in 2014 when oil prices — then the source of 96 percent of foreign exchange — began to collapse, causing the government to fall into debt of some $3.8 billion to air companies, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

In 2017, Avianca, which covered more than half of Caracas-Bogota flights, suspended operations to and from Venezuela.

The countries’ shared 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) land border — the scene of clashes between armed and criminal groups —  was closed from 2019, and reopened in October last year but to pedestrians only.

On Friday, Maduro tweeted that on September 26, “we will jointly open the borders between Venezuela and Colombia. In addition, we will resume flights between Caracas-Bogota and Valencia-Bogota.”

Petro shared the same information on Twitter, adding: “We confirm the government’s commitment to re-establish fraternal relations.”

The countries hope to reinvigorate trade which stood at $7.2 billion in 2008, but has collapsed since then.

Russian forces controlling Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have killed two staff at the facility and detained and abused dozens of others, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency told AFP on Friday.

The Zaporizhzhia plant — the largest in Europe — was captured by Russian troops in March. An uptick in fighting around it in recent weeks has raised fears of a nuclear disaster with both Moscow and Kyiv blaming the other for the escalation. 

“A regime of harassment of personnel was gradually established,” following the Russian takeover, Petro Kotin said. 

“Two people were beaten to death. We do not know where about ten people are now, they were taken (by the Russians) and after that we have no information about their whereabouts,” Kotin said, adding about 200 people had been detained. 

He described the current situation at the plant as “very difficult,” citing “torture” of staff and “beatings of personnel. 

“The Russians look for pro-Ukrainian people and persecute them. People are psychologically broken,” he said in an interview with AFP reporters in his office in Kyiv. 

Frequent shelling of the plant — including the town of Energodar where the facility is located — means staff have been trying to secure safe passage for family members to leave the area, Kotin said. 

“Two people on the territory of the plant were wounded during shelling — a woman and a man — on separate occasions,” Kotin, clad in a military-style jacket, said. 

“But people understand that the nuclear safety of the plant depends on them, so the employees return to Energodar and continue working at the facility,” he added. 

– Demilitarisation zone needed – 

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) dispatched a 14-strong mission last week to the plant and released a report following the inspection. 

Kotin said it described difficult psychological working conditions at the plant that ultimately amounted to “a violation of nuclear radiation safety. 

“This situation must be corrected as soon as possible,” he told AFP. 

The IAEA in its report called for “the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the plant as it faces an “untenable” situation.  

But Kotin said there was room for interpretation there. 

“If this is the demilitarisation of the nuclear plant, we fully support it. If it is … the creation of some security zones with joint control along with the Russians, then this is of course an unacceptable decision for us,” Kotin said.  

“We will insist on creating a demilitarised zone around the plant, including with the participation of peacekeeping groups,” he added. 

Kotin also said Ukraine insists that Russia remove military hardware from the plant and that staff from Russian nuclear agency Rosatom also leave the area. 

“For this, international partners need to put a lot of pressure on Russia to meet conditions that the Ukrainian authorities and the IAEA have made.” 

Kotin added all power lines connected to the plant have been severed as a result of shelling and the only reactor still on “is operating at a very low power level”.  

If these power lines are not restored, Kotin said, the station will go into blackout mode and will be able to rely only on diesel engines “to cool the nuclear material”. 

The head of the IAEA meanwhile on Friday echoed the point, saying nearby shelling had caused a blackout in Energodar and compromised safe operation of the plant. 

Director General Rafael Grossi in a statement on social media described the recent shelling as a “dramatic development”. 

“This is completely unacceptable. It cannot stand,” he added. 

“It is necessary to renew the communication line with the Ukrainian power system as soon as possible and supply it with power from external sources of energy supply,” Kotin stressed. 

Gibraltar was “under a cloud of sorrow” on Friday a day after the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96, with the British enclave at the southern tip of Spain cancelling its national day, the chief minister  said.

“The death of Queen Elizabeth II has been a dreadful blow for all British people and for the people of all her realms and commonwealth,” Gibraltar’s leader Fabian Picardo said in a statement.

“The whole of Gibraltar is under a cloud of sorrow today,” he said, announcing the cancellation of the territory’s September 10 national day which would have been its first post-pandemic celebration. 

Known as The Rock, Gibraltar covers just 6.8-square kilometres (2.6-square miles)  dominated by a massive limestone block whose white cliffs soar more than 400 metres (1,300 feet) above sea level.

“The (British) Prime Minister (Liz Truss) said her majesty had been ‘the rock on which modern Britain was built’. I agree.. but I go one further,” the chief minister said.

“Gibraltar was HER rock. And she was ours.”

The queen visited Gibraltar only once, in May 1954, almost a year after she was crowned, with Picardo saying the enclave “cherished her visit… that left an indelible mark” and cemented its “loyalty to the crown”. 

While Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity in 1713 following a military struggle, Madrid has long wanted it back in a thorny dispute that has created longstanding tensions. 

But the 34,000 population has no interest in being anything but British. 

Earlier, cannon fire rang out across Gibraltar as it joined the ceremonial “death gun salute” held across all four corners of the United Kingdom in memory of the late monarch, who died on Thursday at her Balmoral estate in Scotland.

Ninety-six shots were fired — one for every year of her life — from two sites in London, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland and Cardiff Castle in Wales, as well as the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.

On Saturday, when the late queen’s son and successor is formally proclaimed the new sovereign, the Royal Gibraltar Regiment will at 1100 GMT fire a 21-gun salute “in honour of the proclamation in London of the new king, Charles III”, Picardo said.