Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv and here’s what’s happened so far today:
A fleet of 13 ships carrying more than 280,000 tonnes of grain and agricultural products left ports in Odesa on Sunday, according to Ukraine’s ministry of infrastructure. The ministry said it was the single largest shipment of produce to leave Ukraine since the country brokered an export deal with Russia, the UN and Turkey on 22 July.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has thanked Germany for its solidarity in the face of the Russian invasion and called for more weapons, in a sign of easing tensions between Berlin and Kyiv. He was welcomed by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, with military honours in Berlin.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pushed the president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to prepare a fresh package of sanctions, including a ban on issuing visas to Russsian citizens.
Humanitarian aid has been blocked from being delivered to the occupied city of Enerhodar, according to its mayor, Dymtro Orlov. He said that trucks with nappies, food and other essentials had been turned back for the second day in a row.
Russian forces hit multiple residential targets in Mykolaiv overnight, according to its governor, Vitaliy Kim. He said homes were damaged, as well as three hospitals, two education facilities, a hotel and a museum. Pictures of the damage are coming through already.
A video showing Russian multiple-launch rocket systems firing from the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been published by the Insider. The footage, taken overnight on Friday into early Saturday morning, shows the missile launchers close to a power unit.
The Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmygal, is set to visit Germany on Sunday – the first high-level Ukrainian official to visit the country in months. The trip is a sign of eased tensions after a rocky patch between Kyiv and Berlin,
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia is using “poverty and political chaos” to attack the lives of all Europeans. In his evening address late on Saturday, president Zelensky said that by stopping the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Russia wanted to “destroy the normal life of every European.”
Russian forces are suffering from “morale and discipline issues” in addition to combat fatigue and high casualties, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. Troops’ main grievances probably continued to be around pay, including the high chance that “sizeable combat bonuses” were not being paid, the latest British intelligence update said.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been disconnected from its last remaining main power line to the grid and is relying on a reserve line, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. Previously, there had been reports the plant in south-eastern Ukraine had been knocked offline in the early hours of Saturday amid sustained shelling that destroyed a key power line, according to local Russian-backed authorities.
Sweden has said it would provide liquidity guarantees to Nordic and Baltic energy companies worth “billions of dollars” in an effort to prevent a financial crisis sparked by Europe’s energy crunch.
The Russian energy company Gazprom has said Siemens Energy is ready to help repair broken equipment for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, but claimed there was nowhere available for them to carry out the work.
The European Union expects Russia to respect existing energy contracts but is prepared to meet the challenge if it fails to do so, the economic commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, said.
Our political correspondent, Peter Walker, has written about the main challenges facing Liz Truss if she becomes UK prime minister this week.
Here’s what he has to say about her likely position on Ukraine:
As Johnson’s foreign secretary, and the self-styled continuity-Boris candidate, Truss will maintain his steadfast support for Ukraine’s battle against Russian invaders. One of the few near certainties of Truss’s early weeks in office will be images of her in Kyiv alongside Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
But in common with other world leaders, Truss will face difficulties as the war inches forward, with no apparent resolution in sight, especially once the consequences of the energy price crisis, much of it connected to the war, begin to bite.
Truss will doubtless stay committed to Ukraine. But as its repercussions are felt, it seems likely she will face more voices, within the Conservative party and more widely, seeking an alternative plan.
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