Closing summary
It is 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Ukraine has started a long-awaited counter-offensive in the country’s south, its southern military command has said. “Today we started offensive actions in various directions, including in the Kherson region,” a spokesperson said. The announcement came amid reports that Ukrainian troops were able to break through Russian lines in the Kherson region.
The US believes that Kyiv’s troops have begun “shaping” operations in the south of the country to prepare for a significant Ukrainian counter-offensive, CNN has reported. According to two senior US officials, the US believes the counter-offensive will include a combination of air and ground operations.
Russia’s defence ministry responded by saying that Ukraine’s troops attempted an offensive in the southern Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, sustaining significant casualties. “Enemy’s offensive attempt failed miserably,” it added.
Two people have been killed after Russian shelling hit residential areas of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, city officials and witnesses said. A woman has died after the strike hit a family home directly next to a school, a Reuters correspondent reported. Powerful explosions have been reported today in the city, with residents urged to stay in shelters.
The UN nuclear watchdog will visit Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant this week, its director general has said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission will assess any physical damage to the plant, determine the functionality of safety and security systems, evaluate staff conditions and perform urgent safeguards activities.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry confirmed the IAEA trip to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The mission left Vienna and is due to arrive in Kyiv on Monday, ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook, adding that the team are expected to start work at the plant “in the coming days”.
Moscow welcomes a visit by the UN nuclear watchdog to the Zaporizhzhia plant, a top Russian diplomat said. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia was not considering the possibility of creating a demilitarised zone at the plant.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has warned that the IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia plant will be the “hardest in the history” of the agency. Russia “is putting not only Ukraine but also the entire world at threat of risk of a nuclear accident”, Kuleba said during a visit to Stockholm.
Russian forces fired at Enerhodar, the city where the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located, according to Ukraine’s armed forces. The chief of staff of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, also appeared to confirm the reports on his Telegram channel alongside a video of fire fighters dousing burning cars.
Russian forces are “reconstructing” the Mariupol theatre to cover war crimes, according to an adviser to the city’s mayor. “The occupiers are hiding their own war crime … They are in a hurry to eliminate all traces and evidence through ‘reconstruction’”, Petr Andriushchenko said.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, is being “sidelined” due to problems in the war against Ukraine and is likely being ridiculed by soldiers for his “ineffectual” leadership, said British intelligence. The latest update from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Shoigu has probably “struggled” to overcome his reputation as not having much military experience.
Russia’s FSB security service has accused another Ukrainian of being part of a team that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin. The FSB said it had now identified what it called another member of a Ukrainian “sabotage and terrorist group” which it said had plotted and carried out the killing. Ukraine has denied involvement in the murder of Dugina.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. Thanks for following along. I’ll be back tomorrow.
Two people killed after Russian shelling hit residential areas in Mykolaiv
Two people have been killed after Russian shelling hit residential areas of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, city officials and witnesses said.
A woman has died after the strike hit a family home directly next to a school, a Reuters correspondent reported.
Both houses on the property were left in ruins, with large craters gouged out of the ground in front.
The owner of the home, Olexandr Shulga, said he grew up in the home and had lived there his entire life. His wife died at the scene, Shulga said.
Police, military officials and Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors were at the site in a residential neighbourhood of Mykolaiv.
