Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Rafael Grossi, the chief international nuclear inspector, has said he saw “the key things I needed to see” and his team was able to gather “a lot of information” during a long-awaited visit to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine. “We have achieved something very important today and the important thing is the IAEA is staying here – let the world know that the IAEA is staying at Zaporizhzhia,” Grossi said in a video from Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.
The plant’s operator, Energoatom, said Grossi had left the site after a visit that was delayed by several hours because of shelling. Five International Atomic Energy Agency representatives would remain, probably until Saturday. Grossi said his team would be staying on and maintain a “continued presence” at the plant.
Grossi’s comments came after both sides accused each other of trying to sabotage the IAEA visit, with Moscow and Kyiv trading blame for shelling. Enerhodar, the city beside the plant, came under fire at dawn, its mayor said, and Russian forces reportedly shelled the pre-agreed route the inspectors were meant to take. Moscow claimed to have thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to capture the plant.
The Red Cross has issued an urgent call for an end to all military operations around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, warning the consequences of a strike could be “catastrophic”. It was “high time to stop playing with fire and instead take concrete measures” to protect the plant from any military operations, director general of the ICRC, Robert Mardini, said. The stakes were “immense”, he added.
Ukrainian authorities are making “all efforts” to switch the fifth reactor of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant back on after it shut down due to shelling earlier today, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear company said. The long-awaited visit by IAEA inspectors to the plant would be successful if it led to the “demilitarisation” of the facility, Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, said.
Boris Johnson has said the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is Ukrainian and the Ukrainians should “have it back in their control”. The PM said it was Russia’s “explicit” objective to unplug the nuclear plant from the Ukrainian grid and plug it into the Russian grid.
Russian forces have been forcibly transferring Ukrainian civilians to Russia or areas of Ukraine under their control, according to Human Rights Watch. Forced transfers are “a serious violation of the laws of war that constitute war crimes and potential crimes against humanity”, HRW said.
Away from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Thursday marked the start of the school year in Ukraine. The Guardian spoke with teachers at School No 2 in Borodianka, where in-person classes remain online after it was trashed by occupying Russian forces in March.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has warned Moldova that any actions seen as endangering the security of Russian troops in the breakaway region of Transnistria would be considered an attack on Russia. “Everyone should understand that any action that would threaten the security of our troops (in Transnistria) would be considered under international law as an attack on Russia,” Lavrov warned.
Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, on Saturday because of schedule constraints, the Kremlin has said. Putin was pictured visiting Gorbachev’s open coffin earlier today, where he laid flowers at Moscow’s central clinical hospital.
The chairman of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, has died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, according to reports. Maganov is the second top Lukoil executive to die in mysterious circumstances in recent months. Lukoil was one of the few major Russian companies to call for an end to the Ukraine war. According to the Russian state-owned news agency Tass, Maganov had taken his own life.
Russia has stopped the flow of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe, citing the need to carry out repairs. The German government rejects the claim, calling it a “pretence”. It said Nord Stream was “fully operational” and that there were no technical issues. The halt on the Baltic Sea pipeline at 5am on Wednesday would last for three days, said Gazprom, the Russian state energy company.
A British man has died while volunteering as a medic in Ukraine, his family has said. Craig Mackintosh, from Thetford in Norfolk, died “in the line of duty” on 24 August, his sister Lorna Mackintosh said.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. Thank you for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow.
IAEA chief 'will worry until situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant becomes stable'
Here’s more from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, who said nuclear experts would maintain a continued presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant following his visit today.
Grossi, who visited the plant for several hours, admitted to reporters he would continue to worry until the situation at Zaporizhzhia had stabilised.
He said:
We are not going anywhere. The IAEA is now there, it is at the plant and it is not moving - it’s going to stay there.
The UN nuclear watchdog will have “a continued presence” at the nuclear plant with some of his experts who would provide an impartial neutral technically sound assessment of what was happening on the ground, he said.
Grossi added:
I worried, I worry and I will continue to be worried about the plant until we have a situation which is more stable, which is more predictable.
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