Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature Reuters has more information on the Russian attack on the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant early Monday: Russian troops struck the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region early Monday, but its reactors were undamaged and operating normally, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said. An explosion occurred 300 meters away from the reactors and damaged the power plant buildings shortly after midnight, Energoatom said in a statement. The attack also damaged a nearby hydroelectric station and transmission lines. Energoatom said: Currently, all three power units of the PNPP (Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant) are operating normally. Fortunately there were no casualties among the station staff He posted two photos showing a crater he said was caused by the explosion. In one of the images a man was standing in the crater to give a sense of its size. Commenting on the strike on messaging app Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: The attackers wanted to shoot again, but they forgot what a nuclear power plant is. Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop this before it’s too late. There was no immediate reaction from Russia to Ukraine’s accusations. The area of Mykolaiv has been under constant rocket attacks by Russian forces in recent weeks. Another Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia – which is Europe’s largest and is located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of the Mykolaiv site – was shut down earlier this month due to Russian bombing, raising concerns of a possible nuclear disaster. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of bombing the Zaporizhia plant, which is held by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian personnel. The shelling has damaged buildings and disrupted power lines. The United Nations nuclear watchdog said this weekend that one of the four main power lines at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear facility had been repaired and was once again supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid. Russian troops have struck the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in the southern region of Mykolaiv, but its reactors are undamaged and operating normally, Reuters reports. According to Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom, an explosion occurred early Monday 300 meters from the reactors and damaged power plant buildings. The attack also damaged a nearby hydroelectric station and transmission lines. Updated at 07.59 BST A Russian Su-25 ground attack aircraft fires rockets on a mission at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Defense via AP) Photo: AP Russia is likely to have lost at least four fighter jets in Ukraine in the past 10 days, bringing its toll to around 55 since the start of its invasion, the British military said on Monday. There is a realistic possibility that the increase in casualties was partly a result of greater risk-taking by the Russian air force in a move to provide close air support to Russian ground forces under pressure from Ukrainian advances, the Defense Ministry said in its daily Twitter briefing. . . Russian pilots’ situational awareness is often poor, he said. “There is a realistic possibility that some aircraft may have diverted over enemy territory and into denser air defense zones as the front lines have moved quickly.” (Via Reuters) Updated at 07:30 BST Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to the small group of countries excluded from the Queen’s funeral in London today, AFP reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin – under a UK travel ban due to sanctions – had already said he would not attend. However, not inviting any Russian representative to the queen’s funeral was “particularly blasphemous to the memory of Elizabeth II” and “deeply immoral”, a foreign ministry spokeswoman in Moscow said on Thursday. Russia and Belarus have embassies in London and their presidents have sent messages of condolence to King Charles III. Other countries without invitations are Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Updated at 07:50 BST Good morning. This is Sam Jones now taking over for my colleague Virginia. Ukrainians abandon shelling of Kupyansk as Russian forces try to slow advance On Sunday, Ukrainian civilians fled heavy fighting as Russia’s armed forces tried to block a further dramatic advance by Ukrainian troops in the country’s northeast. As Luke Harding and Isobel Koshiw report, cars full of families drove out of the town of Kupiansk, which Ukraine recaptured just over a week ago as part of a stunning counter-offensive. Kupiansk, a strategic railway junction, is located on both sides of the river. It is on the new front line, after Ukrainian forces crossed the right bank on Friday. Now they are poised to push further into Luhansk province, which the Kremlin and its local proxies have controlled in full since June and in part since 2014. Here’s the full story. Ukrainian troops are putting pressure on retreating Russian forces and are poised to push further into Luhansk province from Kupyansk. Photo: Kostiantyn Liberov/AP Russian pop star speaks out against the war in Ukraine Russian singer Alla Pugacheva spoke out against the war in Ukraine and the “death of our boys for false goals”. The statements are the first time the pop star, an icon in Russia, has publicly criticized the conflict. Addressing the Russian Ministry of Justice, Pugacheva told her 3.4 million Instagram followers: “I ask you to include me in the list of foreign agents of my beloved country.” Read more here. Updated 07.06 BST Milley: ‘I’m not doing too well for Russia’ The top US general said on Sunday that it was not yet clear how Russia might react to the latest setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine and urged US troops to remain vigilant as he visited a base in Poland that is helping Ukraine’s war effort. Reuters reported. “The war is not going very well for Russia right now. So it’s up to all of us to maintain high levels of readiness, to be alert,” US Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Warsaw. Milley said he was not suggesting that U.S. troops in Europe face an increased threat, but said they must be ready. “In the conduct of war, you just don’t know with a high degree of certainty what will happen next.” Some recent images from Kharkiv, Ukraine. People receive humanitarian aid in the village of Prykolotne, Kharkiv, on Sunday. Photo: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPACars cross a damaged bridge on Sunday. Photo: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPAA Ukrainian flag flies over the city of Kharkiv. Photo: Vudi Xhymshiti/VX/REX/Shutterstock A burnt banner with a Russian flag in Kharkiv. Photo: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPAA destroyed building in Kharkiv after attacks by Russian forces. Photo: Vudi Xhymshiti/VX/REX/Shutterstock Russian attacks in the east and south have been repelled, the Ukrainian military says Ukraine’s military said on Sunday its forces repelled attacks by Russian troops in areas of Kharkiv region in the east and Kherson in the south where Ukraine launched counterattacks this month, as well as in areas of Donetsk in the southeast, Reuters reports. It said that Ukrainian troops had advanced to the eastern bank of the Oskil River in the Kharkiv region. “Since yesterday, Ukraine controls the east bank,” he said on Telegram. Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the neighboring Luhansk region, said this meant the “repossession” of his region was not “far off”. Updated at 06.26 BST The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says Russian President Vladimir Putin is “increasingly relying on irregular volunteer and proxy forces rather than conventional units”, in its latest update on the Russian campaign. “Putin’s shaky relationship with the military command and the Russian (MoD) may partly explain the Kremlin’s increasing focus on recruiting ill-prepared volunteers into ad-hoc irregular units rather than trying to draw them into reserves or replace regular Russian combat units,” ISW said.
Welcome
Welcome to live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Virginia Harrison and I’ll be with you for the next hour or so. It’s just after 8am in Kyiv and these are the main developments:
Ukraine’s military said on Sunday its forces repelled attacks by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region in the east and Kherson in the south, where Ukraine launched counterattacks this month, as well as in parts of Donetsk in the southeast. It said that Ukrainian troops had advanced to the eastern bank of the Oskil River in the Kharkiv region. “Since yesterday, Ukraine controls the east bank,” he said on Telegram. Five civilians were killed in Russian attacks in the eastern Donetsk region last day, while in Nikopoli, further west, several dozen residential buildings, gas pipelines and power lines were hit, regional governors said on Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed not to give up the fight to regain territory lost to Russia. “Maybe it seems to some of you that after a series of victories we now have a kind of calm,” he said in his Sunday night address. “But there will be no peace. There is preparation for the next series… For Ukraine it must be free. All these.” In an intelligence briefing, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure, including a power grid and a dam, had intensified. “Faced with setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely expanded the locations it is prepared to strike in an effort to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government,” it said on Sunday. Ukrainian forces are refusing to discard worn-out US-supplied weapons, with many reverse-engineered spare parts, to continue the counterattack against Russia’s invasion.
