May 8 (Reuters) – Some 1,679 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from areas near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a Moscow-installed official in the Russia-controlled parts of the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine said late on Sunday.

The head of the U.N.’s nuclear power watchdog warned on Saturday that the situation around the plant has become “potentially dangerous” as Moscow-installed officials began evacuating people from nearby areas.

Ukraine is expected to start soon a much-anticipated counteroffensive to retake Russian-held territory, including in the Zaporizhzhia region.

“(The evacuees) have already been placed in the temporary accommodation centre for residents of the front-line territories of the Zaporizhzhia region in Berdiansk,” Yevgeny Balitsky, Russian-installed governor of the Russia-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia region, said on his Telegram messaging channel.

Berdiansk is a south-eastern Ukrainian port city on the coast of the Sea of Azov, which has been occupied by Russia since the early days of Moscow’s invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

In Other Developments

* Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared on Sunday to ditch plans to withdraw from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, saying they had been promised more arms by Moscow and suggesting they may keep up their assault on what Russia sees a stepping stone to other cities in the Donbas region.

CONFLICT

* An explosion was heard following a missile attack that hit the Black Sea city of Odesa overnight, a local Ukrainian official said, while air raid alerts rang out in other regions of the country including the capital, Kyiv.

* Russian missiles targeted an industrial site in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, while Ukrainian and Russian media reported multiple explosions across Russian-occupied Crimea.

* Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences had detected and destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea overnight.

* Russian forces are evacuating residents from the town that serves the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said. Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive soon to retake territory, including in the Zaporizhzhia region.

* The head of the U.N.’s nuclear power watchdog said on Saturday the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station has become “potentially dangerous”.

* Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Sunday its forces had foiled an attempt by Ukrainian intelligence to attack a military airfield in central Russia with drones stuffed with explosives.

* Russia’s own security concerns have grown ahead of its annual Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow on Tuesday following a series of drone attacks.

* The prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, on Sunday described breaking both legs in a car bomb that killed his driver and which Moscow blamed on the United States and Ukraine.

* Ukraine on Saturday hailed the return of 45 Azov battalion fighters captured during the battle for Mariupol while Russia said three of its pilots had been released by Kyiv. Neither side gave a full account of the apparent prisoner swap.

GRAIN, FARM PRODUCTS

* Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet responded to proposals from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the Black Sea grain deal, TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Saturday.

* Poland will demand European Union sanctions on imports of Russian farm products, its ambassador to the EU Andrzej Sados was quoted as saying on Saturday by PAP news agency.