Closing summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 9pm. Here is a roundup of the day’s main news:
The centre of the fighting in Ukraine has switched to the road to Mariupol where the Ukrainian offensive is slowly pushing back Russian forces, with British Challenger tanks ready to join battle, a minister in Kyiv has said.
Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia has deployed its first tranche of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. He said nuclear weapons would only be used in the event of a threat to the existence of the Russian state. Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, the Russian president also said there was a “serious danger” that the Nato military alliance could be pulled further into the Ukraine war. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying Russia was ready for further talks on arms control.
A delegation of African leaders began a peace mission in Kyiv on Friday, undeterred by what Ukraine said was a barrage of Russian missiles intended to greet them in the Ukrainian capital. Volodymyr Zelenskiy reportedly said after meeting African leaders that peace talks with Russia would be possible only after Moscow withdraws its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainian air force said on Friday it destroyed six Kinzhals, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones, with the chief of the Kyiv military administration stating they were all intercepted over the Kyiv region. Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said there was no damage in the capital and reported an explosion from air defence in the central Podil district.
Updated
It is unclear whether water from the huge reservoir of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine that burst last week can still be pumped to the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for cooling, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday.
While the reservoir was a main source of water for cooling the six reactors and spent fuel ponds at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, the plant can fall back on other sources including a large cooling pond which the International Atomic Energy Agency says has enough water to last for months.
The bursting of the dam has, however, further complicated an already difficult situation in terms of ensuring Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia operates safely, Reuters quotes the IAEA as saying.
Shelling has repeatedly downed external power lines that are also vital to ensuring the cooling necessary to prevent a nuclear meltdown.
