Summary of today's developments
It is 9pm in Ukraine. Here are some things you might’ve missed:
Putin has agreed for inspectors to visit Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. According to French President Emmanuel Macron’s office, Putin had “reconsidered the demand” that the International Atomic Energy Agency travel through Russia to the site, after the Russian leader himself warned fighting there could bring about a “catastrophe”. It specified that Putin had dropped his demand that the IAEA team travel to the site via Russia, saying it could arrive via Ukraine.
The UN secretary-general has asked Russia not take Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant off grid. António Guterres asked on Friday that the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station not be cut off from Ukraine’s electrical grid after Ukrainian reports that Moscow is planning to do so, saying the plant used “Ukrainian electricity”.
Western officials say that there are growing concerns over concerns over water cooling at Russian-held nuclear power plant. The existing reactor cooling system at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is critical to the safety of the site and relies on the maintenance of the electricity supply to ensure operation – but officials are anxious that Russia may disconnect the supply if it tries to cut off the plant from the Ukrainian grid.
More than half of Russia Black Sea naval aviation has been knocked out, according to a western official in Ukraine. Western officials have said that the Ukrainian raid on the Saky airbase in occupied Crimea last week knocked out “more than half” of Russia’s combat naval aviation in the Black Sea. However, overall “combat stasis” remains.
The US has announced a new $775m (£655m) package of defence equipment and ammunition for Ukraine, including various types of missiles, drones, artillery and mine-clearing systems. The U.S. has previously sent Ukraine more than $9bn (£7.6bn) in weapons systems, ammunition and other equipment.
Russia’s media watchdog said it was taking punitive measures against TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord and Pinterest. Russia has repeatedly threatened to fine sites - including Google, that violate harsh new laws criminalising the spreading of “false information” about the Russian army. On Tuesday, Russian courts fined U.S.-based live streaming service Twitch 2 million roubles (£28,635) and messenger service Telegram 11 million roubles (£158,291) for violating military censorship laws.
A former Russian mayor has been appointed head of Russian-occupied Kharkiv. It is the latest in a string of such appointments which Kyiv says are part of attempts to annexe its territory.
Ukraine’s economy minister has said the country’s economy could contract 35-40% by the end of the year. Hit by Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, the economy contracted 15.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022.
The Kyiv Independent reported that rescuers are searching for people and bodies under the rubble of a dormitory destroyed in attacks on the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The Chinese and Russian leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, told Bloomberg News. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” he told the news agency. As hosts of this year’s summit, Indonesia has faced pressure from western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin. The country has also invited the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Kharkiv has been one of the most consistently shelled since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence. Sitting around 15km from the Russian front line, Kharkiv has suffered because it remains within range of most types of Russian artillery, the latest report from the UK’s ministry of defence reads.
That is all for today. Thank you for reading along.
We will be back bringing you the latest Ukraine news tomorrow.
Putin allows inspectors to visit Russia-held nuclear plant in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed that a team of independent inspectors can travel to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, the French presidency said on Friday.
According to French President Emmanuel Macron’s office, Putin had “reconsidered the demand” that the International Atomic Energy Agency travel through Russia to the site, after the Russian leader himself warned fighting there could bring about a “catastrophe”.
It specified that Putin had dropped his demand that the IAEA team travel to the site via Russia, saying it could arrive via Ukraine.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has urged Moscow’s forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia plant in south Ukraine not to disconnect the facility from the grid and potentially cut supplies to millions of Ukrainians.
US announces new $775m (£655m) arms package for Ukraine
The United States Defence Department on Friday announced a new $775m (£655m) package of defence equipment and ammunition for Ukraine, including various types of missiles, drones, artillery and mine-clearing systems.
“We want to make sure that Ukraine has a steady stream of ammunition to meet its needs, and that’s what we’re doing with this package,” a senior US defence official told reporters.
The official said Ukraine’s forces have made good use of the now 19 packages of arms the United States has provided since Moscow invaded on February 24.
Swiss prosecutors have been asked by an Ukrainian NGO to investigate an alleged attack on a Swiss photojournalist by Russian troops in Ukraine earlier this year, AFP reported on Friday.
The NGO Truth Hounds asked Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to probe an attack on Swiss freelance journalist Guillaume Briquet in southern Ukraine in March as a possible war crime, according to the Swiss-based Civitas Maxima group that helped it file the complaint.
In a statement to AFP, the OAG confirmed that it had received the complaint and said it would “now be examined according to usual procedure”, stressing that a complaint did not automatically mean it would launch an investigation.
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Kramatorsk, which is in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Russia has submitted a letter to the United Nations Security Council warning of planned “provocations” by Ukraine at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported on Friday, citing a diplomat.
The letter repeated Russia’s previous claim that Kyiv was planning a “provocation” at the plant on Friday, TASS reported.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex, the largest in Europe, was captured by Russia in March but is still run by Ukrainian technicians. The plant has come under repeated shelling, with both Moscow and Kyiv trading blame.
US poised to announce nearly $800m (£678m) in new military aid and drones for Ukraine
The United States is poised to announce it will provide Ukraine with nearly $800m (£678m) in new military aid on Friday, including at least a dozen surveillance drones, according to several U.S. officials.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity with the Associated Press to discuss the aid ahead of its public release.
They said the bulk of the aid package will be additional Howitzers (long-range weapons) and ammunition. Two officials confirmed the new inclusion of portable, long-endurance drones which are launched by a catapult and can be retrieved.
The U.S. has previously sent Ukraine more than $9bn (£7.6bn) in weapons systems, ammunition and other equipment.
France has now released a statement on Macron’s call with Putin.
It says the French president “once again underlined his concern at the risks posed by the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant” and argued for the IAEA experts to attend the plant “as soon as possible”.
Putin, the Élysée says, supported this idea.
The statement continued:
The two presidents will talk to each other again in the coming days on this subject, after discussions between the technical teams and before the deployment of the mission.
Updated
Putin and Macron hold talks about nuclear plant
Russian president Vladimir Putin and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have just finished a phone call about the situation in Ukraine, Moscow has said.
In a Kremlin readout of the call, reported by Reuters, Putin said shelling of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, which he blamed on Kyiv, created the risk of “large-scale catastrophe”.
Reuters adds:
Both presidents agree on the need to send a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the plant.
According to the Kremlin, Putin told Macron about continuing obstacles to supplying Russian food and fertiliser products to world markets.
The UN, Ukraine and western officials have all expressed concerns about Russia’s maintenance of the nuclear plant.
The Kyiv Independent reports that it is the first time Macron and Putin have spoken since May.
⚡️Russian media: Macron calls Putin for the first time since May.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 19, 2022
According to Ria Novosti, Macron urged Putin to allow the proposed mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the Russian-occupied town of Enerhodar.
Updated
Russian watchdog imposes measures against TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord, Pinterest
Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said on Friday that it was taking punitive measures against a string of foreign IT companies, including TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord and Pinterest.
In a statement, Roskomnadzor said the measures were in response to the companies’ failure to remove content that it had flagged as illegal, and would remain in place until they complied. It did not specify what measures would be taken.
Russia has repeatedly threatened to fine sites – including Google, that violate harsh new laws criminalising the spreading of “false information” about the Russian army.
On Tuesday, Russian courts fined the US-based live streaming service Twitch 2m roubles (£28,635) and the messenger service Telegram 11m roubles (£158,291) for violating military censorship laws.
On 29 July, the media watchdog targeted Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last remaining independent news outlets, and demanded that its website and print edition be stripped of its licence.
Updated
Ukraine’s economy could contract 35-40% by the end of the year, the economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said on Friday.
Hit by Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, the economy contracted 15.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022.
Updated
Growing concerns over water cooling at Russian-held nuclear power plant, says western official
Western officials said on Friday they were concerned whether water cooling can be maintained at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently held by the Russians, amid accusations that the invaders are not properly maintaining the site.
The existing reactor cooling system, critical to the safety of the site, relies on the maintenance of the electricity supply to ensure operation – but officials are anxious that Russia may disconnect the supply if it tries to cut off the plant from the Ukrainian grid.
One Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “the issue we are concerned about is water cooling of the nuclear reactors” and that it was “a situation we should all be watching very closely”. But they added that there were back-up diesel generators to maintain electricity supply and a Ukrainian workforce at the site “able to operate and mitigate against this”.
A loss of electricity supply led to the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011. Main power was lost after an earthquake and a tsunami overwhelmed the back-up generators on site. The loss of cooling was enough to lead to a partial reactor meltdown.
The western official said that fighting around the plant was considered a far lesser risk because nuclear reactors are designed to withstand relatively heavy impacts with thick walling. “They are built to be able to cope with a civilian airline crashing into them,” the official said, and added that “direct fires” such as artillery was “not our immediate concern”.
But they would not comment on whether they believed Russia was deliberately staging forces at the site, or was preparing a false flag operation, other than to note that “both sides are contesting the information environment”. Social media videos appeare to show Russian forces basing themselves on the site.
Updated
'Crazy things are happening': life in occupied Ukrainian nuclear city
Olexander, a former worker at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station wrote an account of living in Enerhodar, a satellite city for the plant, for the Guardian.
I dedicated my life to nuclear power and have always been proud to be part of it. For many people like me, the Zaporizhzhia plant is our pride and destiny. There are six powerful units, about half of the capacity of all Ukrainian nuclear plants and a quarter of the country’s entire energy sector. Before the war, 11,000 people worked here.
More than 50,000 people live in Enerhodar. We have been living under occupation for almost six months. It’s like a double occupation – the city and the nuclear plant have been captured.
Our faith is constantly being tested. Ten days ago, we were sure that the city and the inhabitants would not suffer. But they are already wounded from the shelling at the station. There are already victims in the city.
Read the rest of the piece here:
Updated
The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh reported on Friday that “significant efforts” are being made “to understand if Ukraine can mount a successful counter attack in the south”.
Tweeting from a “western officials” briefing, Sabbagh added that “such attacks are not without risk”.
Western official: significant efforts being made to understand if Ukraine can mount a successful counter attack in the south. Such attacks are not without risk. Near term unclear: "Both we and the Kremlin are entering unchartered territory"
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) August 19, 2022
Updated
UN chief asks Russia not take Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant off grid
The UN secretary general has asked Russia not to cut the nuclear plant from Ukraine’s grid. António Guterres asked on Friday that the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station not be cut off from Ukraine’s grid after Ukrainian reports that Moscow is planning to do so.
“Obviously the electricity from Zaporizhzhia is Ukrainian electricity … This principle must be fully respected,” said the UN secretary general during a visit to the port of Odesa in southern Ukraine.
Updated
More than half of Russia's Black Sea naval aviation knocked out, says western official
The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, tweeting live from a briefing on Friday, said the Ukrainian raid on the Saky airbase in occupied Crimea last week knocked out “more than half” of Russia’s combat naval aviation in the Black Sea. However, overall “combat stasis” remains.
He added, from the briefing, that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “should be able to withstand most direct military fire. Built strong enough to resist impact of a civilian airliner. Concerns focused around whether the plant suffers a loss of cooling due to the loss of back-up electricity.”
Western official: raid on Saky airbase knocked out "more than half" of Russia's combat naval aviation in Black Sea. Such raids for good for Ukrainian morale but overall "combat stasis" remains
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) August 19, 2022
Concerns around shelling near the plant, the largest in Europe, have been growing since it was taken over by Russian forces in March. It is still being run by Ukrainians. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has called for an urgent withdrawal of military forces and equipment from the site.
Updated
Former Russian mayor appointed head of Russian-occupied Kharkiv
A former mayor of a Russian city has been appointed to head a Russian-installed government in north-east Ukraine, the latest in a string of such appointments which Kyiv says are part of attempts to annexe its territory.
Andrei Alekseyenko resigned as mayor of Krasnodar on Thursday. He will now head a new Russian-appointed council of ministers in the Kharkiv province, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported on Friday, citing a decree by the local Russian-installed administration.
Russian officials have previously said that occupied areas of Ukraine will never return to Kyiv’s control, and that referendums on their accession to Russia may be held in the autumn. Ukraine has called them “pseudo-referendums” and vowed to prevent them.
Updated
Italian newspapers have issued front-page warnings of alleged Russian interference in the upcoming election on Friday. This comes as a response to comments from Russia’s former president urging Europeans to “punish” their “stupid” governments, AFP reports.
The former president and current deputy chair of Russia’s security council, Dmitry Medvedev, on Thursday called for Europeans to be “not only outraged at the actions of their governments ... but to hold them to account and punish them for their obvious stupidity”.
“Act, European neighbours! Don’t remain silent! Demand accountability!” he said on Telegram.
Following Medvedev’s comments, la Repubblica and il Messaggero front pages on Friday wrote of Russian “interference”, while the Corriere della Sera said Russia was “agitating” political waters ahead of the vote due to be held on 25 September.
Updated
Rishi Sunak has called on the G20 to bar the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, from its summit until Moscow halts the war in Ukraine, his spokesperson told Reuters on Friday.
Putin and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, are said to be attending G20, which will be held on the island of Bali in November, according to earlier reports from Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo.
“Our G20 partners and allies have a collective responsibility to call Putin’s abhorrent behaviour out. Sitting round a table with him isn’t good enough when he is responsible for children being killed in their beds as they sleep,” a spokesperson for the former chancellor told Reuters.
They added: “We need to send a strong message to Putin that he doesn’t have a seat at the table unless and until he stops his illegal war in Ukraine.”
Sunak is currently trailing behind the foreign secretary, Liz Truss , in polls in the contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister. In a televised debate on 25 July, Truss said it would be important to confront Putin in front of Russia’s allies. She said:, “I would go there, and I would call Putin out.”
As hosts of this year’s summit, Indonesia has faced pressure from western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin. The country has also invited the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Updated
Summary
It’s 11am in the UK and 1pm in Ukraine. Here is everything that’s happened so far today:
The Kyiv Independent reports that rescuers are searching for people and bodies under the rubble of a dormitory destroyed in attacks on the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will participate online in the second summit of the Crimea Platform, an international platform for work and cooperation on the liberation of Crimea.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged Ukrainians to stay away from enemy command posts and logistics bases, after reports of explosions overnight in Russian-occupied Crimea.
According to Ukraine’s General Staff, Russia has lost 44,700 troops in Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reports.
There were “no claimed or assessed Russian territorial gains in Ukraine on August 18, 2022 for the first time since July 6, 2022”, a report by the Institute for the Study of War, has found.
Russia has failed to gain ground in cyberspace against Ukraine, the head of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence service has said. “President Putin has comprehensively lost the information war in Ukraine and in the west,” Jeremy Fleming said in an op-ed in the Economist on Friday. “Just as with its land invasion, Russia’s initial online plans appear to have fallen short.”
Kharkiv has been one of the most consistently shelled since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence.
Russian forces may be preparing to stage a “provocation” at the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s military intelligence has warned.
The US is readying about $800m of additional military aid to Ukraine and could announce it as soon as Friday, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The Chinese and Russian leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, told Bloomberg News. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Jokowi, as he is popularly known, told the news agency.
Updated
The Kyiv Independent reports that rescuers are searching for people and bodies under the rubble of a dormitory destroyed in attacks on the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The head of Kharkiv Oblast police, Volodymyr Tymoshko, said there are currently 19 people confirmed dead, including a child, and 20 injured, with the death toll expected to rise after Russian rockets struck two hostel dormitories.
Updated
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will participate online in the second summit of the Crimea Platform, an international platform for work and cooperation on the liberation of Crimea. The summit, initiated by Ukraine, will be available to watch live on Nato’s website.
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged Ukrainians to stay away from enemy command posts and logistics bases. “Do not approach the military objects of the Russian army,” he said after reports of explosions overnight in Russian-occupied Crimea. Speaking on Wednesday, Zelenskiy said Russians have realised that Crimea is “not a place for them” and hinted more attacks could lie ahead.
Fires and explosions have been reported at military targets inside Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, in the latest of a string of apparent sabotage missions deep into Russian-held territory.
Two Russian villages were evacuated after a blaze at a munitions depot near the Ukrainian border in Belgorod province. “An ammunition depot caught fire near the village of Timonovo”, less than 50km from the border, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a statement, adding that no casualties were reported.
According to the Kyiv Independent, Oleg Kryuchkov, an advisor to the head of the Russian occupation government in Ukraine’s Crimea, posted on the social media app Telegram that the Russian military had destroyed a target in the city of Kerch, which is linked to Russia’s Krasnodar Krai via the strategic Crimean Bridge. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the President’s Office, said on 17 August that the Crimean Bridge should be destroyed.
Updated
The Kyiv Independent reports that according to Ukraine’s General Staff, Russia has lost 44,700 troops in Ukraine as well as 1,899 tanks, 4,195 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,016 artillery systems, 266 multiple launch rocket systems, 141 air defence systems, 197 helicopters, 234 airplanes, 795 drones, and 15 boats.
A new report from the The Institute for the Study of War, a non-profit research organisation in the US has found there were “no claimed or assessed Russian territorial gains in Ukraine on August 18, 2022 for the first time since July 6, 2022”.
The report suggests Russian propaganda has been intensified as tensions continue to build around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as the chief of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological defence forces, Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, claimed on 18 August in a briefing that “Ukrainian forces are preparing for a provocation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and that the provocation is meant to coincide with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres’s visit to Ukraine”.
Updated
Summary so far
It is 9am in Ukraine. Here is everything you might have missed:
Russia has failed to gain ground in cyberspace against Ukraine, the head of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence service has said. “President Putin has comprehensively lost the information war in Ukraine and in the west,” Jeremy Fleming said in an op-ed in The Economist on Friday. “Just as with its land invasion, Russia’s initial online plans appear to have fallen short.”
Multiple unconfirmed reports are claiming Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv has been struck again this morning. The Kyiv Independent cited Kharkiv mayor, Ihor Terekhov, as saying Russian forces fired on three of the city’s districts at around 5.44am. Terekhov said a residential building was damaged and another building caught fire. If confirmed, the attack would be the third to hit city in three days. Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, said at least 17 people were killed and 42 injured in two separate recent Russian attacks on the city.
Kharkiv has been one of the most consistently shelled since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence. Sitting around 15km from the Russian front line, Kharkiv has suffered because it remains within range of most types of Russian artillery, the latest report from the UK’s ministry of defence reads.
Russian forces may be preparing to stage a “provocation” at the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s military intelligence has warned. Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency said it was concerned that Russia had plans to stage an incident at the plant on Friday, and had information that staff with Russia’s Rosatom nuclear company had left the site.
The UN secretary general has called for an urgent withdrawal of military forces from the site. António Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” about the situation at the plant and said it had to be demilitarised, adding: “We must tell it like it is – any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide.” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he agreed with Guterres on a framework for a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog to inspect the power plant. “We are worried. We don’t want another Chornobyl,” the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, added.
Four explosions hit an area near a major Russian military airport in Crimea on Thursday, local sources reported, but a pro-Moscow official said no damage had been done. The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Russian anti-aircraft forces had downed a Ukrainian drone.
Two Russian villages were evacuated after a fire broke out at an ammunition depot near the border with Ukraine on Thursday, local authorities said. An ammunition depot caught fire near the village of Timonovo, less than 50km (30 miles) from the Ukrainian border in Belgorod province, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement.
The US is readying about $800m of additional military aid to Ukraine and could announce it as soon as Friday, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. President Joe Biden would authorise the assistance using his presidential drawdown authority, which allows the president to authorise the transfer of excess weapons from US stocks.
Chinese and Russian leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, told Bloomberg News. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Jokowi, as he is popularly known, told the news agency.
Kharkiv 'most consistently shelled' since start of war: UK MoD
Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv has been one of the most consistently shelled since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence.
Sitting about 15km from the Russian front line, Kharkiv has suffered because it remains within range of most types of Russian artillery, the latest report from the UK’s ministry of defence reads.
Multiple rocket launchers and generally inaccurate area weapons have caused devastation across large parts of the city.
Russian forces continue to conduct local raids and probing attacks against Ukrainian forces, the ministry added.
They are probably trying to force Ukraine to maintain significant forces on this front, to prevent them from being employed as a counter-attack force elsewhere.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 19 August 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 19, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/H4kJ85x7OH
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/yODxnSBw7g
Updated
Studying in Kryvyi Rih in the 1990s, Ukraine’s wartime leader often skipped class to focus on his standup, our correspondent Luke Harding reports from Zelenskiy’s hometown.
“Volodymyr Zelenskiy was special. He was bright, hard-working and wanted to be the best of the best,” Andrii Shaikan, rector of the state university in Zelenskiy’s home town of Kryvyi Rih, said.
Read the full story below.
Updated
Xi and Putin to attend G20
Chinese and Russian leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, told Bloomberg News on Thursday.
“Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Jokowi, as he is popularly known, told the news agency.
Indonesia is chairing the Group of 20 major economies and has faced pressure from Western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin over his country’s invasion on Ukraine, which his government calls a “special military operation”.
Jokowi has sought to position himself as mediator between the warring countries, and has travelled to meet both Ukraine’s and Russia’s presidents. This week, Jokowi said both countries have accepted Indonesia as a “bridge of peace”.
Leaders of major countries, including US president Joe Biden, are set to meet in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali in November. Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Updated
Guardian correspondent Luke Harding came upon a mural of outgoing UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, while reporting in the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the home town of the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The design – created by a collective from Odesa – shows a mop-haired Johnson giving a thumbs up.
The mural’s artist, Anastasia Scherba, said she was grateful to Johnson for supporting Ukraine and giving it weapons. “He’s cool,” she said
Kharkiv hit in morning attack - reports
Multiple unconfirmed reports are claiming Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv has been struck again this morning.
The Kyiv Independent newspaper cited Kharkiv mayor, Ihor Terekhov, as saying Russian forces fired on three of the city’s districts at around 5.44am.
Terekhov reported that Kharkiv’s Kyivskyi, Osnovyanskyi, and Nemyshlianskyi districts were affected. A residential building was damaged and another unspecified building caught fire as a result of the shelling.
One person has been reported injured so far.
If confirmed, the attack would be the third to have hit city in three days.
Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, said at least 17 people were killed and 42 injured in two separate recent Russian attacks on the city.
Three civilians were killed and 17 wounded in a pre-dawn rocket strike on Thursday, after an attack from Russia the day before.
“As of now, 17 people have died in Kharkiv … and 42 people have been injured,” Synehubov said, describing the attacks as “an act of terrorism”.
Updated
Explosions reported at military targets in Russia and Crimea
Fires and explosions have been reported at military targets inside Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, in the latest of a string of apparent sabotage missions deep into Russian-held territory.
Two Russian villages were evacuated after a blaze at a munitions depot near the Ukrainian border in Belgorod province. “An ammunition depot caught fire near the village of Timonovo”, less than 50km from the border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement, adding that no casualties were reported.
At least four explosions hit near the major Belbek airbase, north of Sevastopol in the occupied Crimean peninsula. The pro-Russia governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said: “There is no damage. No one was hurt.”
Air defences were also activated near Kerch, the city at the Crimean end of a bridge to mainland Russia, which is a strategically vital supply route that many in Ukraine would like to see destroyed. Local media said a Ukrainian drone was shot down.
Calls to secure Russian-held nuclear plant
Amid fears that Russian forces may be preparing to stage a “provocation” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, world leaders have called to urgently secure the site.
The UN secretary general called for an urgent withdrawal of military forces and equipment.
António Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” about the situation at the plant and said it had to be demilitarised, adding:
We must tell it like it is – any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide.”
“The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, agreement is urgently needed to re-establish Zaporizhzhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area,” Guterres said.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he agreed with Guterres on a framework for a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog to inspect the power plant.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, added:
We are worried. We don’t want another Chornobyl.”
Russia to stage ‘provocation’ at nuclear plant, Ukraine says
Ukraine’s military intelligence has warned that Russian forces may be preparing to stage a “provocation” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant they control.
Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency said it was concerned that Russia had plans to stage an incident at the plant on Friday, and had information that staff with Russia’s Rosatom nuclear company had left the site.
Russian state media had already accused Ukraine of planning a “provocation” at the plant to coincide with the UN secretary general’s visit to Ukraine, raising fears that Russia’s military could be planning a “false-flag attack”. When António Guterres travelled to Kyiv in April, Moscow carried out an airstrike on the city.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s interior minister, Denys Monastyrsky, said Ukraine must “prepare for all scenarios”, during a drill for emergency workers in Zaporizhzhia.
Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, also warned Russia’s seizure of the plant had “raised the risk of a nuclear accident or incident” and accused Moscow of being “reckless” by using the area as a staging platform to launch artillery attacks on Ukrainian forces.
Russia said it may shut down the plant, claiming backup support systems had been damaged in strikes. Igor Kirillov, the head of the radioactive, chemical and biological defence force, said if there was an accident at the site, radioactive material would cover Poland, Germany and Slovenia.
Putin is losing information war in Ukraine, UK spy chief says
Russia has failed to gain ground in cyberspace against Ukraine almost six months after its invasion of the country, the head of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence service has said.
Jeremy Fleming, the intelligence head, said both countries have been using their cyber capabilities in the war in Ukraine. In an op-ed in The Economist on Friday, he wrote:
So far, president Putin has comprehensively lost the information war in Ukraine and in the west. Although that’s cause for celebration, we should not underestimate how Russian disinformation is playing out elsewhere in the world.
Just as with its land invasion, Russia’s initial online plans appear to have fallen short. The country’s use of offensive cyber tools has been irresponsible and indiscriminate.”
Fleming said Russia had deployed WhisperGate malware to destroy and deface Ukrainian government systems.
He also said Russia has used the same playbook before on Syria and the Balkans and said online disinformation is a major part of Russia’s strategy. However, the GCHQ has been able to intercept and to provide warnings in time, he said.
Without going into much detail, Fleming said the UK’s National Cyber Force could respond to Russia by deploying a UK military unit that employs offensive cyber tools.
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments for the next short while. Whether you’ve been following our coverage overnight or you’ve just dropped in, here are the latest lines.
Russia has failed to gain ground in cyberspace against Ukraine almost six months after its invasion of the country, the head of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence service has said.
The UN secretary general has called for an urgent withdrawal of military forces from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. António Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” about the situation at the site and said it had to be demilitarised, adding: “We must tell it like it is – any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide.”
It is 7am in Ukraine. Here is everything you might have missed:
Russian forces may be preparing to stage a “provocation” at the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s military intelligence has warned. Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency said it was concerned that Russia had plans to stage an incident at the plant on Friday, and had information that staff with Russia’s Rosatom nuclear company had left the site.
The UN secretary general has called for an urgent withdrawal of military forces from the site. António Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” about the situation at the plant and said it had to be demilitarised, adding: “We must tell it like it is – any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide.” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he agreed with Guterres on a framework for a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog to inspect the power plant. “We are worried. We don’t want another Chornobyl,” the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, added.
At least 17 people were killed and 42 injured in two separate Russian attacks on Kharkiv, according to its regional governor. Three civilians were killed and 17 wounded in a pre-dawn rocket strike on Thursday, after an attack from Russia the day before. “As of now, 17 people have died in Kharkiv … and 42 people have been injured,” Oleh Synehubov said, describing the attacks as “an act of terrorism”.
Four explosions hit an area near a major Russian military airport in Crimea on Thursday, local sources reported, but a pro-Moscow official said no damage had been done. The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Russian anti-aircraft forces had downed a Ukrainian drone.
Two Russian villages were evacuated after a fire broke out at an ammunition depot near the border with Ukraine on Thursday, local authorities said. An ammunition depot caught fire near the village of Timonovo, less than 50km (30 miles) from the Ukrainian border in Belgorod province, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement.
The US is readying about $800m of additional military aid to Ukraine and could announce it as soon as Friday, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. President Joe Biden would authorise the assistance using his presidential drawdown authority, which allows the president to authorise the transfer of excess weapons from US stocks.
The Russian military announced that 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.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy took over a major news conference after becoming irked by a interpreter’s failure to translate his comments properly into English. Zelenskiy acted after the interpreter cut short his remarks during an event with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and United Nations secretary general António Guterres.
Zelenskiy confirmed that Ukraine has not changed its position on peace negotiations, saying talks with Russia are only possible if Russian forces leave illegally occupied territory in Ukraine.
Estonia has been hit by extensive cyber-attacks after removing a Soviet-era tank monument from a region whose population is predominantly ethnic Russians, its government said. Estonia’s foreign minister also defended his country’s decision to bar Russian tourists.
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