Closing summary
It’s nearly 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Residents near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine have reportedly been given iodine tablets, amid mounting fears that the fighting around the complex could trigger a catastrophe. It comes after the plant, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, was temporarily disconnected from Ukraine’s national grid after all lines to it were cut on Thursday.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the world narrowly avoided a “radiation disaster” on Thursday when electricity to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was cut for hours after fires broke out around the plant. The Ukrainian president praised the Ukrainian technicians who operated the plant under the gaze of the Russian military.
By Friday afternoon, Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear agency, said one of the two working reactors had been reconnected to the grid. The one reactor is building up capacity, the agency said, thanking the plant’s working for “tirelessly and firmly” keeping “the nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine and the whole of Europe on their shoulders”.
A team of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog are poised to make an emergency visit to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, according to reports. Sources have told the Wall Street Journal that it is “almost certain” that a mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit the plant early next week, although details are still being completed.
EU energy ministers will gather for an urgent meeting as soon as possible to discuss the current energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Czech prime minister said. The Czech Republic currently holds the presidency of the European Council.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, has announced plans to expand mandatory evacuations for civilians living on the war’s front lines. Speaking on national television, Vereshchuk said evacuating women with children and elderly people would be a priority from some districts of the eastern Kharkiv region and the southern Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv regions.
Ukrainian forces have struck an important bridge used by Russian occupying forces in the southern Kherson region, according to Ukraine’s southern military command. The Daryivskiy bridge is the only Russian-controlled crossing across the Inhulets river, which splits the Russian-occupied land west of the Dnipro into two parts.
Russia’s claim that it is deliberately slowing the pace of its military campaign in Ukraine is “almost certainly deliberate misinformation”, according to British intelligence. The latest UK Ministry of Defence report said Russia’s offensive has stalled “because of poor Russian military performance and fierce Ukrainian resistance”.
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has said his country’s SU-24 warplanes have been re-fitted to carry nuclear armaments. Lukashenko said he had previously agreed the move with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and warned that his country is ready to respond to “serious provocation” from the west instantly.
Russia is burning off large amounts of natural gas that it would previously have exported to Germany while energy costs soar in Europe, the BBC has reported. According to the broadcaster, which cites an analysis by Rystad Energy, a plant near Russia’s border with Finland is burning an estimated £8.4m-worth of gas every day.
The head of the UK’s energy regulator, Ofgem, has blamed Russia for driving up energy prices, resulting in the UK price cap rising by 80%. Ofgem on Friday approved the £1,578 increase on the current price cap of £1,971 for the average dual-fuel tariff.
The German ambassador to the UK has acknowledged that there is a risk that public support for Ukraine could wane this winter as the energy crisis intensifies. Vladimir Putin is “using gas as a weapon” in the UK and all of Europe, Miguel Berger said. “He wants to test our resolve”.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. As always, thank you for reading.
Ukrainian forces have struck an important bridge used by Russian occupying forces in the southern Kherson region, according to Ukraine’s southern military command.
The southern command said in a statement:
Rocket artillery units continued to conduct missions, including ensuring control over the Daryivskiy bridge. Its operation is currently halted.
The Daryivskiy bridge is the only Russian-controlled crossing across the Inhulets river, which splits the Russian-occupied land west of the Dnipro into two parts, Reuters reports.
