Closing summary
It is 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
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Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has urged the EU to supply his country with more weapons and equipment to help in its fight against Russia’s invasion. He also suggested Ukraine could deliver gas to the EU to ease an energy crunch that has driven prices to record-high levels. In a joint press conference with Shmyhal, the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, promised the bloc’s continued support to Kyiv, no matter “whatever threat, whatever blackmail” may come from Russia.
Russia will not resume its gas supplies to Europe in full until the west lifts its sanctions against Moscow, the Kremlin said. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, blamed western sanctions for Russia’s failure to deliver gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, adding that Russia’s full resumption of gas supplies via Nord Stream 1 was “undoubtedly” dependent on whether the west would lift its sanctions on Moscow.
Concerns over Russian gas supplies continued to drive up energy prices, while the pound and euro slumped after Russia shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline indefinitely. The contract for gas delivery next month in the UK soared by 35%, to 550p a therm. Winter gas prices were also up sharply. On Monday, the euro hit a 20-year low against the US dollar, falling as low as $0.9879 in early trading.
Ukraine’s armed forces have said its troops repelled Russian offensives in eastern Ukraine and were able to knock Russian positions near Kramatorsk. In a situational update, it also claimed that Ukrainian troops had successes in disrupting Russian crossings near Kherson and in using long-range artillery in Kharkiv.
Despite the Russian military’s efforts to contain the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south, it is focused on conquering the Donbas region, according to the latest update from the UK ministry of defence. Russia’s main “axes of advance remain at Avdiivka near Donetsk city and, 60km to the north, around Bakhmut”, the MoD said.
Ukraine has made progress in its recently launched counteroffensive, with its forces taking two settlements in the south, a third in the east as well as additional territory in the east of the country, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, posted an image of soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over a village he said was in Ukraine’s south.
Russia-appointed officials in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine say they are “pausing” a planned referendum on whether to become part of Russia because of attacks by Ukrainian forces. The Russian state news agency Tass reported that the head of Kherson’s authorities, Kirill Stremousov, said attacks on the Antonivskiy Bridge in Kherson city by Ukrainian forces had stopped traffic from crossing the Dnieper River, which links the two sides of the region.
The final working reactor block of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been disconnected after Russian shelling disrupted power lines, according to Ukraine’s state energy operator. Energoatom told Reuters that the reactor was operating and providing the plant’s own electricity needs despite its disconnection from the grid.
Four of the six International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission members at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have left its territory, Energoatom, Ukraine’s state enterprise operating all four nuclear power stations in the country, has said. The remaining two still stay on a permanent basis, it said.
Ukraine and the EU have signed a deal to release a further €500m (£431m) in planned aid, aimed at supporting housing, education and agriculture. The European Commission announced the package as senior officials hosted a meeting in Brussels with Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal. The meeting was the first since Ukraine was accepted as a formal candidate to join the EU.
The EU is running low on weapon stocks as member countries continue to send arms and ammunition to Ukraine, the bloc’s top diplomat has warned. The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, urged member states to better coordinate their spending on military materiel during a debate with European lawmakers.
Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s leading independent newspaper whose chief editor was last year co-awarded the Nobel peace prize, was stripped of its media licence today. The country’s media regular, Rozkomnadzor, had accused the publication of failing to provide documents related to a change of ownership in 2006. The ruling was “a political hit job, without the slightest legal basis”, its editor-in-chief and Nobel Peace laureate, Dmitry Muratov, said outside court today.
A Russian court has sentenced the journalist Ivan Safronov to 22 years in a penal colony after finding him guilty of treason. Safronov, a former military correspondent for Kommersant and Vedomosti, was arrested in 2020 and accused of disclosing classified information. Journalists were seen crying and hugging each other on the streets outside the courtroom after the verdict.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the outgoing British prime minister, Boris Johnson, for his “personal bravery and principles” in response to Russia and said that he would remain “a great friend of Ukraine”. Johnson told the Ukrainian president that he was “convinced” Ukraine’s forces could “continue to succeed in pushing back Russian forces” and that the UK “remains steadfast in its support”, Downing Street said.
The Kremlin has said diplomatic relations between Britain and Russia could worsen under the next British prime minister. Speaking to reporters before Liz Truss was declared the winner of the UK’s Conservative party leadership election, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he didn’t think “we can hope for anything positive” as the contest had been dominated by “anti-Russian rhetoric”.
The Hollywood stars Sean Penn and Ben Stiller are among 25 Americans who have been targeted with sanctions by Russia due to their public criticism of Moscow’s war on Ukraine. Russia’s foreign ministry said the group, which also included business leaders, academics and government officials, would be banned permanently from entering Russia.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine blog today. As always, thank you for reading. I will be back tomorrow.
Ukraine says its forces pushed Russian forces back near Kramatorsk
Ukraine’s armed forces have said its troops repelled Russian offensives in eastern Ukraine and were able to destroy Russian positions near Kramatorsk.
In a situational update, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said:
Our defenders successfully repelled enemy offensive attempts in the areas of the settlements of Bilohorivka, Hryhorivka, Pokrovske, Bakhmutske, Lozove, Spartak, Soledar, Zaitseve and Semihiria.
In the Kramatorsk direction, they had tactical success and knocked the enemy out of the positions he had previously occupied.
It went on to say that Ukrainian troops had successes in disrupting Russian crossings near Kherson and in using long-range artillery in Kharkiv.
It added:
As a result of Ukraine’s successful fire attack on Kharkiv Region’s Kupiansk, Russian occupiers lost over 100 troops killed and wounded, and two combat vehicles were destroyed.
It has not been possible to independently verify these claims.
Updated
