Russia-Ukraine war: UN urges Moscow not to take nuclear power plant off grid; Putin and Macron hold talks – live | 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.

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.

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.

Growing concerns over water cooling at Russian-held nuclear power plant, says western official

Dan Sabbagh

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.

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:

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.

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.”

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.