Patchy fog early, then partly to mostly sunny with some increasing high clouds later in the day. Still warm, dry, and comfortable. The better weekend day. .
Becoming mostly cloudy with a few showers possible late, especially west of the Lehigh Valley.
Russian rockets launched against Ukraine from Russia's Belgorod region are seen at dawn in Kharkiv, Ukraine, early Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg participate in a media conference after a meeting of NATO ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, reacts after his press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks during joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Latvian President Egils Levits in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, Latvian President Egils Levits, right, and Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki seen at the "Walk of the Brave" in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.The "Walk of the Brave" name plates mark those who have helped in the struggle against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrive for a meeting with North Atlantic Council ambassadors, a day after Blinken's unannounced visit to Ukraine, at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Russian rockets launched against Ukraine from Russia's Belgorod region are seen at dawn in Kharkiv, Ukraine, early Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg participate in a media conference after a meeting of NATO ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, reacts after his press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks during joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Latvian President Egils Levits in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, Latvian President Egils Levits, right, and Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki seen at the "Walk of the Brave" in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.The "Walk of the Brave" name plates mark those who have helped in the struggle against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrive for a meeting with North Atlantic Council ambassadors, a day after Blinken's unannounced visit to Ukraine, at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces on Friday claimed new success in their counteroffensive against Russian forces in the country's east, taking control of a sizeable village and pushing toward an important transport junction. The United States' top diplomat and the head of NATO noted the advances, but cautioned that the war is likely to drag on for months.
Ukraine's military also said it launched new attacks on Russian pontoon bridges used to bring supplies across the Dnieper River to Kherson, one of the largest Russian-occupied cities, and the adjacent region. Ukrainian artillery and rocket strikes have left all the fixed bridges across the river unusable, the military's southern command said.
Anxiety increased about Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which was operating in emergency mode Friday for the fifth straight day due to the war. That prompted the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog to call for the establishment of an immediate safety zone around the plant to prevent a nuclear accident.
The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant came under the control of Russian forces early in the war but is being operated by Ukrainian staff. The plant and surrounding areas have been repeatedly hit by shelling that Russia and Ukraine blame on each other. The last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity grid was cut Monday, leaving the plant without an outside source of electricity. It is receiving power for its own safety systems from the only reactor — out of six total — that remains operational.
The Ukrainian military said it took control of the village of Volokhiv Yar in the Kharkiv region and aimed to advance toward strategically valuable town of Kupiansk, which would cut off Russian forces from key supply routes.
Pro-Russian authorities in the Kupiansk district announced that civilians were being evacuated toward the Russian-held region of Luhansk.
“The initial signs are positive and we see Ukraine making real, demonstrable progress in a deliberate way,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Brussels, a day after visiting Kyiv.
“But this is likely to go on for some significant period of time,” he said. “There are a huge number of Russian forces 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.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who met with Blinken, said the war is “entering a critical phase.”
The gains "are modest and only the first successes of the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army, but they are important both in terms of seizing the military initiative and raising the spirit of Ukrainian soldiers,” Mykola Sungurovsky, a military analyst at the Razumkov Center in Kyiv, told The Associated Press.
Energoatom, Ukraine's state nuclear operator, said Friday that repairs to outside electric lines at the Zaporizhzhia plant are impossible because of the shelling and that operating the plant in what is called an “island” status carries "the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards.”
"Only the withdrawal of the Russians from the plant and the creation of a security zone around it can normalize the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Only then will the world be able to exhale,” Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, told Ukrainian TV.
Earlier, Kotin told The Associated Press that the plant's only operating reactor “can be stopped completely" at any moment and as a consequence, the only power source would be a diesel generator.
There are 20 generators on site and enough diesel fuel for 10 days. After that, about 200 tons of diesel fuel would be needed daily for the generators, which he said is “impossible” while the plant is occupied by Russian forces.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Friday that there was little likelihood of reestablishing reliable offsite power lines to the plant.
“This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious,” Grossi said, calling for an “immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area” and the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone.
“This is the only way to ensure that we do not face a nuclear accident,” he said.
Fighting continued Friday elsewhere in Ukraine.
Russian planes bombed the hospital in the town of Velika Pysarivka, on the border with Russia, said Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of the Sumy region. he said the building was destroyed and there were an unknown number of casualties.
In the Donetsk region in the east — one of two that Russia declared to be sovereign states at the outset of the war — eight people were killed in the city of Bakhmut over the past day and the city is without water and electricity for the fourth straight day, said governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Four people were killed in shelling in the Kharkiv region, two of them in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest, according to governor Oleh Syniehubov. The shelling of the city continued Friday afternoon, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, wounding 10 people, including three children.
Ukraine this week claimed to have regained control of more than 20 settlements in the Kharkiv region, including the small city of Balakliya. Social media posts showed weeping, smiling Balakliya residents embracing Ukrainian soldiers.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday refused to comment on the alleged retaking of Balakliya, redirecting all such questions to the Russian Defense Ministry.
But Vitaly Ganchev, the Russian-installed official in the Kharkiv region, confirmed Friday that “Balakliya, in effect, is not under our control.” Ganchev said “tough battles” were continuing in the city and that Russian forces were attempting to expel the Ukrainian troops.
Helicopters and fighter jets streaked over the rolling plains of the eastern Donetsk region, with the jets heading in the direction of Izium, near where Ukrainian forces have been carrying out a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region. The jets fired flares while black smoke billowed in the distance.
Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
If you know of local business openings or closings, please notify us here.
- The Cadillac Pub opens where Klingers used to be at 24 E. Main Street in Fleetwood
- II-VI Inc. (pronounced "two-six") will become Coherent Corp., taking on the name of a company it recently acquired.
- ABEC, a company that provides services and products to the pharmaceutical industry, with headquarters in Northampton County, will invest in a new disposable-container facility in North Carolina.
- A new Lehigh Valley Martial Arts center will hold a grand opening starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, with a ribbon-cutting shortly afterward.
- Bethlehem Township's planning commission has approved an Amazon parking lot with 248 spaces at Brodhead and Mowrer roads.
- The Bethlehem Zoning Hearing Board rejected variance requests that would have allowed multifamily homes to go up on the Southside properties at 508-512 Selfridge St.
- Northampton County Council voted 1-8 against a tax break for development of a proposed warehouse at the Dixie Cup building on South 25 Street in Wilson Borough.
- The former Valley Farm Market, now known as Gerrity's Valley Farm Market, will take on a new name as of Oct. 14: Gerrity's The Fresh Grocer.
- Hamsa Exoticz is already open at the Lehigh Valley Mall, but it will hold a grand opening at 5 p.m. Sept. 16 with the Whitehall Chamber of Commerce.
- A new Home Depot will open a 136,048-square-foot building on about 21 acres of vacant land just off Hamilton Boulevard in Lower Macungie Township.
- Rocco Ayvazov's Monocacy General Contracting received approval from the Bethlehem Planning Commission to put up a six-story building with 55 apartments and retail space on the first floor at 128 E. Third St.
- The old Allen Organ showroom building on Route 100 in Lower Macungie Township will come down and about 100 total apartment units will go up.
- Reading Hospitality's Catering by DoubleTree will handle food at events at Reading Country Club, after Exeter Township supervisors approved a new agreement.
- Natural healing is the goal at Reike Balance, which will open Sept. 9. on Reading Avenue in West Reading.
- The Pocono Chamber of Commerce held a grand opening at the Bartonsville branch of Farmhouse Cafe.
- The reopening date for the historic Frenchtown Inn building overlooking the Delaware River in New Jersey remains unclear.
- River Paws, a pet-supply store, is across Race Street from the Frenchtown Pharmacy.
- The planned reopening date of Aug. 13 for Toby's Cup was pushed back after ownership said a dispute about the occupancy of a home on the hot dog stand's property delayed the reopening.
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