Summary of today so far …
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Russian forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant are reorienting the plant’s electricity production to connect to Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, according to Ukrainian operator Energoatom. “To do this, you must first damage the power lines of the plant connected to the Ukrainian energy system. From 7-9 August , the Russians have already damaged three power lines. At the moment, the plant is operating with only one production line, which is an extremely dangerous way of working,” Energoatom president Petro Kotin told Ukrainian television. The plant, located not far from the Crimean peninsula, has six of Ukraine’s 15 reactors, and is capable of supplying power for four million homes.
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The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power firm warned of the “very high” risks from shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied south and said it was vital Kyiv regains control over the facility in time for winter. Energoatom’s chief, Petro Kotin, told Reuters in an interview that last week’s Russian shelling had damaged three lines that connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Ukrainian grid and that Russia wanted to connect the facility to its grid.
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Russia’s daily military briefing for Wednesday has claimed to have shot down three Ukrainian planes overnight, and to have destroyed German-supplied anti-aircraft systems.
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A Russian airbase deep behind the frontline in Crimea has been damaged by several large explosions that occurred on Tuesday, killing at least one person. It was not immediately clear whether it had been targeted by a long-range Ukrainian missile strike. Crimea’s regional ministry of health has said that, additionally 13 people were injured as a result of explosions at the airport in Novofedorivka. Ukraine’s army claims to have destroyed nine Russian planes in the last 24 hours. It did not specify the locations. The Russian military have said that “several aviation munitions detonated” in a storage area at the facility.
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In his nightly address, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, did not discuss who was behind the attacks but vowed to “liberate” Crimea, saying: “This Russian war against Ukraine and against the entire free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – with its liberation.” An adviser to the president, Mikhail Podolyak, said Ukraine was not taking responsibility for the explosions, suggesting partisans might have been involved.
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The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has said that in the last 24 hours two people have been killed and 25 civilians were injured in the territory it claims to control.
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At least 13 people have been killed overnight by shelling in Marhanets in Dnipropetrovsk. Regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said more than 20 buildings were damaged. Ukraine’s emergency service has distributed images which appear to show a school in Marhanets damaged by an attack.
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Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, said that as a result of shelling at around 1.40am Wednesday morning, three people, including a 13-year-old girl, were injured in the city of Mykolaiv. He said residential buildings were damaged as a result of shelling.
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The leaders of Estonia and Finland want fellow European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, saying they should not be able to take holidays in Europe while the Russian government carries out a war in Ukraine. The Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, wrote on Tuesday on Twitter that “visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right” and that it was “time to end tourism from Russia now”, the Associated Press reported.
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Denmark will send military instructors to Britain to train Ukrainian soldiers and also aims to train Ukrainian officers in Denmark, the Danish defence minister said in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten newspaper published Wednesday.
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The US state department has approved $89m-worth of assistance to help Ukraine equip and train 100 teams to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance for a year, Reuters reported.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Tom Ambrose will be here shortly to continue our coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Key events
Seven in 10 previous or current UK sponsors of Ukrainian refugees say their ability to provide support has been hindered by the cost of living crisis, figures have suggested.
Some 21% of people who have or are currently hosting Ukrainians in their homes said the rising cost of living has affected their ability to provide support “quite a lot”, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
A further nine per cent said it affected their ability to help “very much” while 41% said it had been affected “a little”, the Press Association reported.
Some 26% said it had not affected their ability to help at all while three per cent replied “don’t know”.
Four Russian missiles hit a village on the southern outskirts of Ukraine’s city of Zaporizhzhia early on Wednesday, killing a 52-year-old woman who was found in the rubble, the regional governor said.
“Four private buildings have been totally destroyed. Several dozen houses have been left without windows and roofs,” governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on Telegram.
Rescue workers were still digging through the rubble hours later, the governor said. Electricity and gas supply to the village of Kushuhum were also disrupted, he added.
A Ukrainian mother and her son prepare to leave Lisbon, where they went to flee the war two and a half months ago.
Despite ongoing conflict with Russian forces in the south and east of the country, the UN Refugee Agency has reported more than 4.4m border crossings back into Ukraine since 28 February.
Many of those crossing are thought to be Ukrainians heading back to parts of the country now considered relatively safe, hoping to reunite with family, rebuild their country and restart their lives.
Katya and Nazar set off for Kyiv hoping to make it in time to celebrate Nazar’s ninth birthday.
Russian authorities have raided the home of a former state TV journalist who quit after making an on-air protest against Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
They have also launched a criminal case against her on the charge of spreading false information about Russian armed forces, her lawyer said on social media.
The case against Marina Ovsyannikova was launched under a law, enacted after the 24 February invasion of Ukraine, that penalises statements against the military, lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov said. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison, the Associated Press reported.
Zakhvatov told the independent news site Meduza the case is probably linked to a protest Ovsyannikova staged last month, holding a banner that said “Putin is a killer, his soldiers are fascists”.
After the raid, Ovsyannikova is expected to be brought into the Investigative Committee for questioning, he said on Telegram. Ovsyannikova previously worked as a producer with the Russian state-funded Channel One.
She made international headlines on 14 March when she appeared behind the anchor of an evening news broadcast holding a poster that said “stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here”.
She was charged with disparaging the Russian military and fined 30,000 roubles (around £223.40 at the time).
Summary of today so far …
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Russian forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant are reorienting the plant’s electricity production to connect to Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, according to Ukrainian operator Energoatom. “To do this, you must first damage the power lines of the plant connected to the Ukrainian energy system. From 7-9 August , the Russians have already damaged three power lines. At the moment, the plant is operating with only one production line, which is an extremely dangerous way of working,” Energoatom president Petro Kotin told Ukrainian television. The plant, located not far from the Crimean peninsula, has six of Ukraine’s 15 reactors, and is capable of supplying power for four million homes.
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The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power firm warned of the “very high” risks from shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied south and said it was vital Kyiv regains control over the facility in time for winter. Energoatom’s chief, Petro Kotin, told Reuters in an interview that last week’s Russian shelling had damaged three lines that connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Ukrainian grid and that Russia wanted to connect the facility to its grid.
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Russia’s daily military briefing for Wednesday has claimed to have shot down three Ukrainian planes overnight, and to have destroyed German-supplied anti-aircraft systems.
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A Russian airbase deep behind the frontline in Crimea has been damaged by several large explosions that occurred on Tuesday, killing at least one person. It was not immediately clear whether it had been targeted by a long-range Ukrainian missile strike. Crimea’s regional ministry of health has said that, additionally 13 people were injured as a result of explosions at the airport in Novofedorivka. Ukraine’s army claims to have destroyed nine Russian planes in the last 24 hours. It did not specify the locations. The Russian military have said that “several aviation munitions detonated” in a storage area at the facility.
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In his nightly address, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, did not discuss who was behind the attacks but vowed to “liberate” Crimea, saying: “This Russian war against Ukraine and against the entire free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – with its liberation.” An adviser to the president, Mikhail Podolyak, said Ukraine was not taking responsibility for the explosions, suggesting partisans might have been involved.
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The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has said that in the last 24 hours two people have been killed and 25 civilians were injured in the territory it claims to control.
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At least 13 people have been killed overnight by shelling in Marhanets in Dnipropetrovsk. Regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said more than 20 buildings were damaged. Ukraine’s emergency service has distributed images which appear to show a school in Marhanets damaged by an attack.
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Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, said that as a result of shelling at around 1.40am Wednesday morning, three people, including a 13-year-old girl, were injured in the city of Mykolaiv. He said residential buildings were damaged as a result of shelling.
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The leaders of Estonia and Finland want fellow European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, saying they should not be able to take holidays in Europe while the Russian government carries out a war in Ukraine. The Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, wrote on Tuesday on Twitter that “visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right” and that it was “time to end tourism from Russia now”, the Associated Press reported.
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Denmark will send military instructors to Britain to train Ukrainian soldiers and also aims to train Ukrainian officers in Denmark, the Danish defence minister said in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten newspaper published Wednesday.
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The US state department has approved $89m-worth of assistance to help Ukraine equip and train 100 teams to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance for a year, Reuters reported.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Tom Ambrose will be here shortly to continue our coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Denmark will send military instructors to Britain to train Ukrainian soldiers and also aims to train Ukrainian officers in Denmark, the Danish defence minister said in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten newspaper published today.
Reuters reports the interview precedes a conference in Copenhagen on Thursday when British, Danish and Ukrainian defence ministers are expected to discuss long-term support for Ukraine, including military training, mine clearance and weapon supplies.
“Within a short time, Denmark is sending 130 military instructors to a British training project,” defence minister Morten Bodskov told the newspaper.
The Danish defence ministry had no immediate comment.
Ukraine’s emergency services has issued some photographs this morning that it claims shows the damage in Marhanets after it was strike by Russian shelling. Early, the regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said at least 13 people died.
Russia’s military briefing for the day has claimed to have shot down three Ukrainian planes overnight, and to have destroyed German-supplied anti-aircraft systems. It states that it has killed up to a further 130 Ukrainian service personnel. The claims have not been independently verified.
Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces has issued updated figures this morning for the losses it says it has inflicted on pro-Russian forces.
Notably, without specifying where it happened, today’s figures indicate they destroyed nine Russian planes or helicopters in the last 24 hours.
It claims to have killed “about 42,800” military personnel in total since 24 February, an increase of 160 on the day before. It also said: “The opponent suffered the biggest losses in the Donetsk direction.”
The daily operational briefing from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has claimed that in the last 24 hours two people have been killed and 25 civilians were injured in the territory it claims to control. It says this came after Ukrainian forces shelled 10 of the 266 settlements it claims have been “liberated” from Ukrainian forces. It says 72 houses and nine civil infrastructure facilities were damaged.
None of the claims have been independently verified. The DPR is recognised as a legitimate authority by only three UN member states, including Russia.
This morning we have been sent some images over the newswires from inside occupied Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. The pictures were taken on a trip organised by the Russian military, and appear designed to show that ordinary work and life continues under the auspices of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR).
Several of the photographs were taken at a coal mining operation in Dolzhansk.
The LPR was formed in 2014, and is recognised as a legitimate authority by only three UN member states: Russia, Syria and North Korea.
One image released shows the leader of the self-proclaimed LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, attending a movie premiere for a film entitled Match, which glorifies the actions of Soviet Union soldiers during the second world war.
Another part of the trip appears to have been to demonstrate that an equestrian school was running as normal.
The RIA Novosti news agency is reporting that Crimea’s regional ministry of health has said that 13 people were injured and one died as a result of explosions at the airport in Novofedorivka.
It quotes the authority’s statement saying: “As of 8.30am, as a result of an incident in the urban-type settlement of Novofedorivka, Saki district, 13 people were injured and one person died.”
RIA goes on to report that “one person was hospitalised in the Saki regional hospital, another 10 patients with minor injuries, including two minors, received medical care on an outpatient basis. Two more victims went to Simferopol hospital No 6, after rendering assistance they were allowed to go home.”
The claims have not been independently verified, and the cause of the explosions remains somewhat unclear. Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhail Podolyak has denied Ukrainian responsibility for an attack, and the Russian military have said only that “several aviation munitions detonated” in a storage area.
At least 13 killed overnight in Dnipropetrovsk – regional governor
There is some clarification here on the numbers killed overnight in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Reuters reports governor Valentyn Reznichenko now says that at least 13 people died after shelling there.
He said more than 20 buildings were damaged in Marhanets, a city across the Dnipro River from the Russian-captured Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
The attack damaged a power line, leaving several thousand people without electricity, Reznichenko said. The attack damaged a hostel, two schools, a concert hall, the main council building and other administrative bases, he added.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, despite the evidence of damage to civil infrastructure in Ukrainian cities, towns and villages.
Lviv’s governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, has said the night passed without incident in his western region of Ukraine. He said that 306 people arrived in evacuation trains from the east of the country, where the fighting is concentrated. He said that 761 left on evacuation trains to Poland.
Here are some of the latest images we have been sent from inside Ukraine and Crimea over the newswires.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, has posted to Telegram to say that as a result of shelling at around 1.40am, three people, including a 13 year-old girl, were injured in the city of Mykolaiv. He said residential buildings were damaged as a result of shelling.
He also claimed that yesterday, during the day, there had been several fires in the fields caused by Russian attacks, and that “settlements of the Bereznehuvate community, located on the demarcation line, remain under constant fire”.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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