The leaders of Ukraine, Turkey and the UN met to review the grain export deal in Lviv, as well as to discuss the rising tensions at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, and Volodymyr Zelenskiy agreed upon the parameters of a possible mission led by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the power plant, with Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, warning of the dangers of “another Chornobyl”.
In the meeting, Guterres told Zelenskiy of a UN fact-finding mission to Olenivka in Donetsk to investigate allegations of Russian mistreatment against Ukrainian prisoners of war. Zelenskiy asked Guterres also to investigate “the issue of compliance by the Russian side with the agreements reached in the context of the withdrawal of Ukrainian defenders from Azovstal”.
Erdoğan signed a memorandum with Ukraine to help reconstruct infrastructure destroyed by the war. “While continuing our efforts to find a solution, we remain on the side of our Ukraine friends,” he said.
At least 15 people were killed in a series of Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv that took place late Wednesday and early Thursday morning, Ukraine’s state emergencies services said. Zelenskiy called the attack a “devious and cynical strike on civilians with no justification”. He said: “We will not forgive, we will take revenge.”
Russia has warned it may shut down the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant if Ukraine continues to shell the facility – a claim Kyiv has denied. Meanwhile,
Ukraine’s military intelligence believes Russia is planning a “provocation” at the nuclear power plant on Friday, by announcing an unexpected “day off” and closing entry to all other employees. Scientists with the Ukrainian Hydrometeorology Institute simulated the radiation spread of a nuclear disaster and found that with the weather conditions of the past few days, radioactive contaminants could reach as far north as the Baltic Sea, hitting Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland along the way, as well as Belarus. Heading west, radioactive contaminants could enter Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.Estonia has been hit by extensive cyber-attacks after removing a Soviet-era tank monument from a region whose population is predominantly ethnic Russian, its government has said. Russian hacker group Killnet claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said blocked access to more than 200 state and private Estonian institutions, but the Estonian government said the impact of the attack was limited and went “largely unnoticed”.
The Russian military announced it has deployed warplanes armed with state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region, a move that has been broadly interpreted as a response to the west arming Ukraine. The Kinzhal hypersonic missiles have a range of up to 2,000km (1,2oo miles) and fly at 10 times the speed of sound, making it hard to intercept, the Russian military said. Russia has used the weapon to strike several targets in Ukraine.
Russia has replaced the commander of its Crimea-based Black Sea fleet after explosions rocked the peninsula this week. Russia’s RIA news agency cited sources as saying Igor Osipov had been replaced with Viktor Sokolov. If confirmed, it would mark one of the most prominent sackings of a military official in the war so far.
Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in joint military exercises “unrelated to the current international and regional situation”, China’s defence ministry has said. Other countries will include India, Belarus, Mongolia and Tajikistan. In July, Moscow announced plans to hold “Vostok” exercises from 30 August to 5 September.
