Ukraine’s forces have had “successes” in three areas of the Russian-occupied region of Kherson, according to a Ukrainian regional official. Yuriy Sobolevskyi, the deputy head of Kherson’s regional council, said Ukrainian troops had enjoyed successes in the Kherson, Beryslav, and Kakhovka districts, without providing details.
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed, however, that Ukraine’s attempts to mount a counteroffensive in the south of the country had failed. In its daily briefing, it said Ukraine’s forces had suffered heavy losses in equipment and troops. It has not been possible to independently verify either side’s claims.
A team of nuclear experts travelled to Zaporizhzhia amid international concern about the potential for an accident or radiation leak at the nuclear power plant there. The International Atomic Energy Agency envoys set off from Kyiv on Wednesday morning for the plant in south-eastern Ukraine, a Reuters witness reported from the scene. The UN nuclear chief, Rafael Grossi, told a briefing in Kyiv: “We are finally leaving after six months of effort. The IAEA is heading to the Zaporizhzhia NPP. As you know, we have a very important task there – to work and examine the real situation there, to help stabilise the situation as much as possible.”
Grossi said the IAEA will seek to establish a permanent presence at the Zaporizhzhia plant to avoid “a nuclear accident” at the facility. He added that the agency’s visit to the plant will last a few days. Russian-installed officials in the area near the power station previously suggested the visit might last only one day.
Ukraine accused Russian forces of firing on a town near the Zaporizhzhia plant as inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog were on their way to inspect the facility. One of the shells hit the building where Energodar city council is located, according to its mayor, Dmytro Orlov.
Ukraine also accused Russia of deliberately shelling corridors to make it unsafe for the IAEA inspectors to visit the plant. Mykhailo Podolyak, a key presidential adviser, said Russia was attempting to force the IAEA mission through Crimea and parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions temporarily occupied by Moscow’s forces.
Russia has halted gas supplies through a major pipeline to Europe, citing a need for maintenance on its only remaining compressor, raising the prospect of recession and energy rationing throughout the region. The outage on Nord Stream 1 means no gas will flow to Germany between 1am GMT on Wednesday and 1am GMT on Saturday 3 September, according to the Russian state energy firm Gazprom. Data from the website of the pipeline’s operator, as cited by Reuters, showed flows at zero at 4am-5am CET (2am-3am GMT) on Wednesday. European governments fear Moscow could extend the outage in retaliation for western sanctions imposed.
Russia has the potential to open up a “second theatre of war” should it choose to do so, Germany’s chief of defence has warned. Russia is “very well capable of expanding the conflict regionally” and will not run out of ammunition any time soon, according to Gen Eberhard Zorn, the highest-ranking soldier of the Bundeswehr.
The UN’s cultural agency has said it supports a bid by Ukraine to add the port city of Odesa to the Unesco world heritage list of protected sites. The historic centre of Odesa has already been struck by artillery fire and is located only a few dozen miles from the frontline, the agency said.
Ukraine continues its offensive against Russia’s forces across southern Ukraine, pushing the frontline back “some distance in places”, according to British intelligence. The full report released by the UK Ministry of Defence added that Russia continued “to expedite attempts to generate new reinforcements for Ukraine”.
The funeral of the Soviet Union’s last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday aged 91, will take place in Moscow on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported, citing Gorbachev’s daughter and his foundation. The ceremony will be held on 3 September in the Moscow Hall of Columns, the same place where Joseph Stalin’s body was put on display after his death in 1953, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Gorbachev’s daughter, Irina.
Vladimir Putin has sent official condolences to Gorbachev’s family of Mikhail Gorbachev as the Kremlin broke its silence overhis death. But it has demurred on whether the former leader will receive a state funeral or be dealt a final snub by a successor who tore down his legacy.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive to retake Kherson will be a “slow operation to grind the enemy”, the senior presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych has said. “Of course, many would like a large-scale offensive with news about the capture by our military of a settlement in an hour,” he wrote. “But we don’t fight like that … Funds are limited.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said heavy fighting continued in “almost the entire territory” of Kherson. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, Natalia Humeniuk, said Ukraine’s forces had succeeded in damaging bridges that join Kherson across the river, rendering them “impassable for heavy machinery”.
A Moscow-installed leader of occupied Kherson has reportedly fled to Russia. When asked by the Guardian about his location, Kirill Stremousov said he was currently “travelling around Russian cities, meeting different people for work”.
A former head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, welcomed Ukraine’s counterattacks in Kherson, saying it was a key moment in the war. Sir Alex Younger told the BBC that the fightback from Kyiv showed the two opposing forces had “reached some kind of balance, which is an unexpected and frankly welcome situation”.
Ukraine is using wooden decoys of advanced US rocket systems to trick Russia into wasting its missiles on them, according to the Washington Post. The decoy versions of US-supplied rocket launcher systems drew at least 10 Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, leading Ukraine to further boost its production of replicas in an effort to lure Moscow into firing its expensive long-range missiles on fake targets, the publication said.
At least five people were killed and 12 wounded in Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Zelenskiy said. “Only one Russian shelling of Kharkiv took the lives of five people today, another 12 were wounded.”
EU foreign ministers have agreed to fully suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Russia. The move will mean that Russian citizens applying for EU visas will find it more costly and time-consuming. Today’s announcement stops short of a blanket ban of travel visas for Russians, which eastern EU states and the Nordic countries were calling for. The move to restrict travel visas for Russians is a step “in the right direction”, Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, said.
Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have said they are considering barring Russian travellers from entry if the EU fails to do so. The move should contain exceptions “for dissidents as well as other humanitarian cases”, the four countries – which all border Russia – said in a joint statement published before the EU’s visa deal suspension announcement.
