We are closing this blog now, you can read all our Ukraine coverage here
Closing summary
It is just after 9pm in Kyiv. Here is what you might have missed:
Russian forces destroyed key infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson before retreating, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. He said the occupiers had “destroyed all the critical infrastructure : communications, water, heat, electricity”. Kherson’s mayor said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of water, medicine and bread, as residents celebrated their liberation in what Zelenskiy called a “historic day”.Zelenskiy said authorities had, in their efforts to stabilise the region, dealt with nearly 2,000 mines, trip-wires and unexploded shells left by the departing Russians.
Ukrainians hailed Russia’s retreat from Kherson as Kyiv said it was working to de-mine the strategic southern city after the eight-month occupation and restore power across the region. In the formerly occupied village of Pravdyne, outside Kherson, returning locals embraced their neighbours, some unable to hold back tears, Agence France-Presse reported. “Victory, finally!” one said.
The head of Kherson’s regional state administration said everything was being done to “return normal life” to the area. Yaroslav Yanushevych said from Kherson city in a video posted to social media that while de-mining was carried out, a curfew had been put in place and movement in and out of the city had been limited.
Pro-Moscow forces are putting up a much stiffer fight elsewhere and the battles with Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region are hellish, Zelenskiy said. “There it is just hell – there are extremely fierce battles there every day. But our units are defending bravely – they are withstanding the terrible pressure of the invaders, preserving our defence lines,” he said.
US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, said some sanctions on Russia could remain in place even after any eventual peace agreement with Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, according to Reuters. Yellen said that any eventual peace agreement would involve a review of the penalties the US and its allies have imposed on Russia’s economy, according to the Journal. “I suppose in the context of some peace agreement, adjustment of sanctions is possible and could be appropriate,” Yellen said in an interview in Indonesia, where she is attending the G20 summit.
Russia’s education minister, Sergey Kravstov, has stated that military training will return to Russian schools next September, according to the latest update by the UK’s Ministry of Defence. The programme is supported by Russia’s Ministry of Defence, which states that no less than 140 hours per academic year should be devoted to this training.
Ukraine would decide on the timing and contents of any negotiation framework with Russia, according to a readout of a meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, at the Asean summit in Cambodia in Phnom Penh.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has spoken to his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, by phone and both leaders placed emphasis on deepening political, trade and economic cooperation, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday. The discussion of “a number of topical issues on the bilateral agenda” also including the transport and logistics sector, the Kremlin said. It did not say when the phone call took place and made no mention of Iranian arms supplies to Moscow.
Significant new damage to the major Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine can be seen following Russia’s withdrawal from nearby Kherson, Reuters reported the US satellite imagery company Maxar as saying.
Russia said there was no agreement yet to extend a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea, repeating its insistence on unhindered access to world markets for its own food and fertiliser exports, Reuters reported.
