Summary
The EU is set to suspend its visa travel agreement with Russia this week, The Financial Times reports. The plan to freeze a 2007 deal will make it harder and more expensive for Russians to get Schengen-area documents, the FT reports. It comes after some eastern member states threatened to unilaterally close their borders to Russian tourists, with other countries calling for collective action to stop ordinary Russians from travelling to the EU on tourist visas. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has previously called for a complete ban.`
Russia claims it has hit workshops at the Motor Sich factory in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine. The facility is where helicopters for the Ukrainian air force are being repaired, the defence ministry said. But Ukrainian officials later said the hit resulted significant civilian damages: damaging nine multi-story buildings and 40 private homes.
A Russian missile has struck military infrastructure in Rivne oblast in northern Ukraine. Reports so far are that there were no casualties, and that the missiles came from just over the border from Belarus.
The United States today called out Russia’s “cynical obstructionism” after Moscow remained the sole holdout in blocking the adoption of a joint declaration on nuclear non-proliferation following lengthy international negotiations at the United Nations. The 191 signatories review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty every five years, which aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and promote cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. But on Friday, Russia prevented the declaration’s adoption, saying it took issue with “political” aspects of the text.
It is unclear if Russia will try to fill its increase in armed forces members by recruiting more volunteer “contract” soldiers or by lifting annual targets for conscriptions, British intelligence says. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week to increase the size of the armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its sixth month. The latest UK Ministry of Defence briefing says that under the Russian legislation now in place, the decree is unlikely to make “substantive progress” towards increasing Russia’s combat power.
Two people were killed in Russian firing on Bakhmut, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Saturday. The eastern city is a significant target for Russian and separatist forces seeking to take control of the parts of Donetsk they don’t hold. Associated Press also reported local government officials as saying that in the Black Sea region of Mykolaiv, one person was killed and another wounded in Russian firing.
On the opposite shore from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the towns of Nikopol and Marhanets were hit by shells on Saturday afternoon and evening, Nikopol’s mayor, Yevhen Yevtushenko, said on Telegram.
Concern persists about the potential for a radiation leak at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine’s state energy operator has warned there are “risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances” at the Russian-occupied plant. Authorities were distributing iodine tablets to residents who live near the plant in case of radiation exposure.
Russia and Ukraine traded fresh accusations of each other shelling the area around the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, on Saturday. Moscow’s troops have “repeatedly shelled” the site of the plant over the past day, the Ukrainian state nuclear company, Energoatom, said. Russia’s defence ministry has claimed Ukraine’s troops “shelled the territory of the station three times” in the past day.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is trying to negotiate access to the plant for an urgent inspection mission “to help stabilise the nuclear safety and security situation there”. Energoatom head Petro Kotin told the Guardian a visit could come before the end of the month, but the Ukrainian energy minister, Lana Zerkal, told a local radio station she was not convinced Russia was negotiating in good faith.
Zelenskiy meets with defence, security sector
Volodymyr Zelenskiy met today with representatives of his defence and security sector, his office said.
The secret meeting was attended by the heads of the armed forces, intelligence agencies, the ministry of defence, the ministry of internal affairs, the Ukrainian security service as well as other defence forces.
They discussed the situation at the front and the needs of the Ukrainian forces.
US blasts Russia for blocking joint declaration on nuclear non-proliferation
The United States today called out Russia’s “cynical obstructionism” after Moscow remained the sole holdout in blocking the adoption of a joint declaration on nuclear non-proliferation following lengthy international negotiations at the United Nations.
The 191 signatories review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty every five years, which aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and promote cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
But on Friday, Russia prevented the declaration’s adoption, saying it took issue with “political” aspects of the text. Vedant Patel, a deputy spokesman for the US state department, said in a statement that Moscow did this “in order to block language that merely acknowledged the grave radiological risk at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant” – the largest nuclear reactor in Europe that is currently occupied by the Russian military.
The latest draft text had expressed “grave concern” over military activities around Ukrainian power plants, including Zaporizhzhia, according to Agence France-Presse. Kyiv and Moscow have repeatedly accused the other of shelling the plant, and its operator has warned of the risks of a radioactive leak.
“For the Russian Federation to not accept such language in the face of overwhelming international consensus underscores the need for the United States and others to continue urging Russia to end its military activity near ZNPP and return control of the plant to Ukraine,” Patel said.
A Russian missile has struck military infrastructure in Rivne oblast in northern Ukraine. Reports so far are that there were no casualties, and that the missiles came from just over the border from Belarus.
Russia launched a missile attack on the "object of military infrastructure" in Rivne Oblast, Oblast head informed
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 28, 2022
According to preliminary information, there are no casualties. Missiles were launched from the territory of Belarus. https://t.co/Sxcrgn6FBV pic.twitter.com/FgOH3EBRUm
Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk oblast, said explosions were heard at an agricultural facility in Russian-occupied Svatove. This facility was used as a Russian military base.
⚡️Governor: Loud explosions reported in Russian-occupied Svatove, Luhansk Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 28, 2022
Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk Oblast, said that explosions were heard at a local agricultural facility that was used as a Russian military base.
Updated
Russia claimed that its forces struck workshops at the Motor Sich factory in the Zaporizhzhia region last night, damaging a facility where helicopters for the Ukrainian air force were being repaired. Ukrainian officials said the strike caused much more civilian damage than the Russians would acknowledge.
As a result of the Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia on Sunday night, 9 multi-storey buildings and 40 private houses were damaged.
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) August 28, 2022
Updated
With energy prices continuing to skyrocket across Europe, the Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, today called on the EU to separate electricity prices from those of gas to keep them from rising further due to the war in Ukraine, saying “we can’t let Putin decide every day” the price of energy, Agence France-Presse is reporting.
“Electricity prices must go down,” he said in a statement. “We have to stop this madness that is happening right now on energy markets.”
Nehammer said he would raise the issue at an emergency meeting the bloc is due to hold on the issue. He said he has already discussed it with the leaders of Germany and the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
Last week, the year-ahead contract for German electricity reached €995 ($995) a MWh while the French equivalent surged past €1,100 – more than a tenfold increase in both countries from last year.
In the UK, the Ofcom energy regulator said it would increase the electricity and gas price cap almost twofold from 1 October to an average of £3,549 a year.
Updated
Summary
It is just after 6pm in Ukraine. Here is what you might have missed:
The EU is set to suspend its visa travel agreement with Russia this week, The Financial Times reports. The plan to freeze a 2007 deal will make it harder and more expensive for Russians to get Schengen-area documents, the FT reports. It comes after some eastern member states threatened to unilaterally close their borders to Russian tourists, with other countries calling for collective action to stop ordinary Russians from travelling to the EU on tourist visas. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has previously called for a complete ban.
Russia claims it has hit workshops at the Motor Sich factory in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine. The facility is where helicopters for the Ukrainian air force are being repaired, the defence ministry said.
It is unclear if Russia will try to fill its increase in armed forces members by recruiting more volunteer “contract” soldiers or by lifting annual targets for conscriptions, British intelligence says. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week to increase the size of the armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its sixth month. The latest UK Ministry of Defence briefing says that under the Russian legislation now in place, the decree is unlikely to make “substantive progress” towards increasing Russia’s combat power.
Two people were killed in Russian firing on Bakhmut, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Saturday. The eastern city is a significant target for Russian and separatist forces seeking to take control of the parts of Donetsk they don’t hold. Associated Press also reported local government officials as saying that in the Black Sea region of Mykolaiv, one person was killed and another wounded in Russian firing.
On the opposite shore from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the towns of Nikopol and Marhanets were hit by shells on Saturday afternoon and evening, Nikopol’s mayor, Yevhen Yevtushenko, said on Telegram.
Dell Technologies says it has ceased all Russian operations after closing its offices in mid-August, the latest in a growing list of western firms to exit Russia. Reuters reports that the US computer firm – a key supplier of servers in Russia – has joined others in curtailing operations since Moscow’s February invasion of Ukraine. Dell suspended sales in Ukraine and Russia in February, saying it would monitor the situation to determine next steps.
Concern persists about the potential for a radiation leak at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine’s state energy operator has warned there are “risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances” at the Russian-occupied plant. Authorities were distributing iodine tablets to residents who live near the plant in case of radiation exposure.
Russia and Ukraine traded fresh accusations of each other shelling the area around the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, on Saturday. Moscow’s troops have “repeatedly shelled” the site of the plant over the past day, the Ukrainian state nuclear company, Energoatom, said. Russia’s defence ministry has claimed Ukraine’s troops “shelled the territory of the station three times” in the past day.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is trying to negotiate access to the plant for an urgent inspection mission “to help stabilise the nuclear safety and security situation there”. Energoatom head Petro Kotin told the Guardian a visit could come before the end of the month, but the Ukrainian energy minister, Lana Zerkal, told a local radio station she was not convinced Russia was negotiating in good faith.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued a statement marking Ukraine’s Aviation Day, in which he pledged that Kyiv’s troops would “destroy the occupiers’ potential step by step”. The Ukrainian president vowed that the Russian “invaders will die like dew on the sun”.
Russia has probably increased the intensity of its attacks in the Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region over the past five days, according to British intelligence. Pro-Russia separatists have most likely made progress towards the centre of Pisky village, near Donetsk airport, but Russian forces overall have secured few territorial gains, the latest report from the UK Ministry of Defence says.
Russia has blocked an agreement at the UN aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The failure to agree to a joint statement, due to Moscow’s objection to a clause about control over the Zaporizhzhia plant, is the latest blow to hopes of maintaining an arms control regime and keeping a lid on a rekindled arms race.
Ukrainian sailors will be allowed to leave the country for work, Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers has said. The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said men of draft age employed as crew members would be allowed to leave the country so long as they had permission from their local conscription offices to cross the border.
Britain’s defence ministry has said it is giving six underwater drones to Ukraine to help clear its coastline of mines and make grain shipments safer. In addition, dozens of Ukrainian navy personnel will be taught to use the drones over the coming months, the ministry said.
Kazakhstan, a neighbour and ally of Russia, has suspended all arms exports for a year, its government said, amid the conflict in Ukraine and western sanctions against Moscow.
Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to protect the airspace of their Nato ally Slovakia, as it upgrades its air force from legacy Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters to a new batch of F-16 jets from the US.
Updated
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Russian forces had turned the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant into a military military base, putting the whole continent at risk.
He said on Twitter:
For decades, nuclear safety has remained Ukraine’s top priority, especially given our tragic past. Russian invaders turned Zaporizhzhya NPP into a military base putting the entire continent at risk. Russian military must get out of the plant – they have nothing to do there!
Russia and Ukraine have each traded accusations of each other shelling the area around the nuclear plant.
As we reported earlier, Russia’s defence ministry claimed there was more Ukrainian shelling of the plant over the past two days.
However, Ukrainian authorities said that Russian artillery fired at Ukrainian towns across the river from the power plant overnight.
Regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said on Telegram on Sunday that Russian forces struck residential buildings in the region’s main city of Zaporizhzhia, about a two-hour drive from the plant, and the town of Orikhiv further east, Reuters reports.
For decades, nuclear safety has remained Ukraine’s top priority, especially given our tragic past. Russian invaders turned Zaporizhzhya NPP into a military base putting the entire continent at risk. Russian military must get out of the plant — they have nothing to do there!
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) August 28, 2022
Updated
Emma Graham-Harrison reports for us from Chernihiv:
The woods outside Chernihiv were quiet in late August when Anatoliy Pavelko scrambled into a 10-metre bomb crater with a trowel and an icebox full of sample jars. He wanted to find out what the Russian FAB-250 bomb left behind when it carved this gaping hole into the ground in the spring.
Four months earlier, the environmental lawyer was dug in on a frontline just a few kilometres away, shells crashing around him in the bitter fight to keep Russian forces out of Kyiv.
Now he has taken temporary leave from his unit of volunteers and returned to Chernihiv for a more familiar battle on a different front in the war against Moscow.
Russia’s invasion has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians and destroyed homes and entire cities. It is also devastating Ukraine’s environment, an “ecocide” that activists worry is going largely unrecorded amid the broader national tragedy.
Read more: Toxins in soil, blasted forests – Ukraine counts cost of Putin’s ‘ecocide’
Simon Tisdall writes for us today to argue that Putin is trapped and desperate. Will his friends in the west rescue him?
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. So wrote American author Henry David Thoreau in 1854. It’s a fate that is rapidly overtaking Vladimir Putin as he struggles to escape the disastrous trap he set for himself in Ukraine.
Russia’s president keeps understandably schtum about his “special military operation”. But indefinite stalemate is not what he expected. He didn’t expect car bombs in Moscow and humiliating attacks on fortress Crimea, either.
Least of all did Putin anticipate 80,000 Russian soldiers dead or wounded. Dying with them is his Peter the Great pipe dream of a “greater Russia”. Extinct already is his reputation as anything other than a killer and a crook.
An endless military quagmire is not a scenario Putin can afford as slow-burn western sanctions corrode his economy and his military’s manpower and materiel are steadily depleted. So what are his options?
Read more here: Putin is trapped and desperate. Will his friends in the west rescue him?
Updated
These are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine.
Updated
EU set to suspend visa travel agreement with Russia: Financial Times
The Financial Times is reporting that the EU is set to suspend its visa travel agreement with Russia this week.
The plan to freeze the 2007 deal will make it harder and more expensive for Russians to get Schengen-area documents, the FT reports.
It comes after some eastern member states threatened to unilaterally close their borders to Russian tourists, with other countries calling for collective action to stop ordinary Russians from travelling to the EU on tourist visas. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has previously called for a complete ban.
The FT reports:
As a first step, ministers plan to give political support to suspending the EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement at a two-day meeting in Prague that begins on Tuesday, three officials involved in the talks told the Financial Times.
A senior EU official involved in the talks said:
It is inappropriate for Russian tourists to stroll in our cities, on our marinas. We have to send a signal to the Russian population that this war is not OK, it is not acceptable.
Parts of the 2007 deal relating to free movement of government officials and businessmen were suspended in late February. A wider suspension would remove preferential treatment for Russians when applying for all EU visas, requiring more documents, making them more expensive and significantly increasing waiting times.
The senior EU official added that deeper changes could be introduced by the end of the year:
We are in an exceptional situation and it requires exceptional steps. We want to go beyond suspending the visa facilitation.
Updated
Russia claims to have hit facility where Ukrainian helicopters are being repaired
Russia claims it has hit workshops at the Motor Sich factory in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.
The facility is where helicopters for the Ukrainian air force are being repaired, the defence ministry said.
In an update on the conflict, Russia’s defence ministry said:
The high-precision weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the city of Zaporozhye, on the territory of the Motor Sich plant, hit the production shops, in which the helicopters of the Ukrainian Air Force were repaired.
They also claimed that Ukrainian forces have been shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant over the past two days.
As we reported earlier, Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of shelling near Europe’s largest nuclear facility in what has become a dangerous flashpoint in the war amid concerns about the potential for a radiation leak.
Updated
Isobel Koshiw reports for us from Kyiv:
Ukrainians are likely to experience the coldest winter in decades, its gas chief has said, as the thermostats on its Soviet-era centralised heating systems are set to be switched on later and turned down.
Yurii Vitrenko, the head of the state gas company Naftogaz, said indoor temperatures would be set at between 17 and 18C, about four degrees lower than normal, and he advised people to stock up on blankets and warm clothes for when outdoor temperatures fall to and beyond the -10C winter average.
“Heating season”, the period when the central heating is on, will come later and end earlier, said Vitrenko.
The target depends on Ukraine’s international allies giving it the necessary funds to import 4bn cubic metres-worth of gas, as well as no wildcards playing out – such as Russia destroying gas infrastructure or further decreasing its gas supplies to Europe.
Read more: Ukraine braces for cold winter amid uncertainty over power supplies
These are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine
Updated
Summary so far
It is just past 1pm in Ukraine. This is what you might have missed:
It is unclear if Russia will try to fill its increase in armed forces members by recruiting more volunteer “contract” soldiers or by lifting annual targets for conscriptions, British intelligence says. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week to increase the size of the armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its sixth month. The latest UK Ministry of Defence briefing says that under the Russian legislation now in place, the decree is unlikely to make “substantive progress” towards increasing Russia’s combat power.
Two people were killed in Russian firing on Bakhmut, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Saturday. The eastern city is a significant target for Russian and separatist forces seeking to take control of the parts of Donetsk they don’t hold. Associated Press also reported local government officials as saying that in the Black Sea region of Mykolaiv, one person was killed and another wounded in Russian firing.
On the opposite shore from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the towns of Nikopol and Marhanets were hit by shells on Saturday afternoon and evening, Nikopol’s mayor, Yevhen Yevtushenko, said on Telegram.
Dell Technologies says it has ceased all Russian operations after closing its offices in mid-August, the latest in a growing list of western firms to exit Russia. Reuters reports that the US computer firm – a key supplier of servers in Russia – has joined others in curtailing operations since Moscow’s February invasion of Ukraine. Dell suspended sales in Ukraine and Russia in February, saying it would monitor the situation to determine next steps.
Concern persists about the potential for a radiation leak at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine’s state energy operator has warned there are “risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances” at the Russian-occupied plant. Authorities were distributing iodine tablets to residents who live near the plant in case of radiation exposure.
Russia and Ukraine traded fresh accusations of each other shelling the area around the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, on Saturday. Moscow’s troops have “repeatedly shelled” the site of the plant over the past day, the Ukrainian state nuclear company, Energoatom, said. Russia’s defence ministry has claimed Ukraine’s troops “shelled the territory of the station three times” in the past day.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is trying to negotiate access to the plant for an urgent inspection mission “to help stabilise the nuclear safety and security situation there”. Energoatom head Petro Kotin told the Guardian a visit could come before the end of the month, but the Ukrainian energy minister, Lana Zerkal, told a local radio station she was not convinced Russia was negotiating in good faith.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued a statement marking Ukraine’s Aviation Day, in which he pledged that Kyiv’s troops would “destroy the occupiers’ potential step by step”. The Ukrainian president vowed that the Russian “invaders will die like dew on the sun”.
Russia has probably increased the intensity of its attacks in the Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region over the past five days, according to British intelligence. Pro-Russia separatists have most likely made progress towards the centre of Pisky village, near Donetsk airport, but Russian forces overall have secured few territorial gains, the latest report from the UK Ministry of Defence says.
Russia has blocked an agreement at the UN aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The failure to agree to a joint statement, due to Moscow’s objection to a clause about control over the Zaporizhzhia plant, is the latest blow to hopes of maintaining an arms control regime and keeping a lid on a rekindled arms race.
Ukrainian sailors will be allowed to leave the country for work, Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers has said. The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said men of draft age employed as crew members would be allowed to leave the country so long as they had permission from their local conscription offices to cross the border.
Britain’s defence ministry has said it is giving six underwater drones to Ukraine to help clear its coastline of mines and make grain shipments safer. In addition, dozens of Ukrainian navy personnel will be taught to use the drones over the coming months, the ministry said.
Kazakhstan, a neighbour and ally of Russia, has suspended all arms exports for a year, its government said, amid the conflict in Ukraine and western sanctions against Moscow.
Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to protect the airspace of their Nato ally Slovakia, as it upgrades its air force from legacy Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters to a new batch of F-16 jets from the US.
Around 46,750 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war with Ukraine, the country’s foreign ministry said on in an update posted on Twitter.
The update added that Russia has also lost 3,171 vehicles and fuel tanks, 234 aircraft and 1,942 tanks, since the start of the conflict in February this year.
Russia does not give a running total of troop losses or equipment destroyed or taken. The Ukrainian claims could not be independently verified.
1️⃣8️⃣6️⃣ days of full-scale #Russia’s war on #Ukraine.
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) August 28, 2022
Information on #Russian invasion.
Losses of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine, August 28. pic.twitter.com/TyUxhonDWP
Rustem Umerov, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, thanked the UK for supplying the country with underwater drones.
A press release on Saturday from the Ministry of Defence said:
Six autonomous minehunting vehicles will be sent to the country to help detect Russian mines in the waters off its coast. Three of these will be provided from UK stocks, with a further three to be purchased from industry.
The lightweight autonomous vehicle is designed for use in shallow coastal environments, operating effectively at depths of up to 100m to detect, locate and identify mines using an array of sensors so the Ukrainian Navy can destroy them.
Dozens of Ukrainian Navy personnel will be taught to use the drones over the coming months, with the first tranche having already begun their training.
🇬🇧🤝🇺🇦 Great Britain will provide Ukraine with underwater drones for demining the coastline and is already training the military. This will help #Ukraine make its waters safe and improve grain exports. Thank you!
— Rustem Umerov (@rustem_umerov) August 28, 2022
Updated
Dan Sabbagh reports for us from Kramatorsk:
A Russian missile slammed into Valentina’s garden on a residential street in Kramatorsk at about 6pm on a warm August evening, landing among the squash and cabbages to the rear of the pensioner’s house, smashing windows, destroying the roof, scattering glass, tiles, bricks and rubble everywhere.
Valentina, 75, was sitting outside under a grapevine, just about far enough from the blast to escape only with cuts and bruises, some all too visible on a visit to her ruined home five days later. But while the wounds will heal, the trauma will linger.
“All my life I worked hard. Why? Why? What did I do?” Valentina cried as she surveyed the wreckage, with no apparent prospect of help with the necessary clear-up, too shocked to know what to do next. Perhaps it was time to relocate to relative safety elsewhere in Ukraine? “How can I go? I have nothing to go with,” she asked.
Read more: ‘We were born here’: Ukrainians in frontline towns face painful choice
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree allowing Ukrainian passport holders who have entered Russia since Moscow’s offensive to live and work in the country indefinitely.
Until now, Ukrainians could stay in Russia only for a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period. To stay longer or to work, special authorisation or a work permit was required.
Agence France-Presse reports that the new measure allows Ukrainian citizens and people from Ukraine’s separatist eastern regions that Russia recognises as independent to work in Russia without a work permit and to live in the country “without a time limit”, according to the temporary decree published on Saturday.
The decree also forbids the deportation of Ukrainian citizens, except for those released from prison or those deemed to pose a threat to Russia’s security.
Dell Technologies says it has ceased all Russian operations after closing its offices in mid-August, the latest in a growing list of western firms to exit Russia.
Reuters reports that the US computer firm – a key supplier of servers in Russia – has joined others in curtailing operations since Moscow’s February invasion of Ukraine.
Dell suspended sales in Ukraine and Russia in February, saying it would monitor the situation to determine next steps.
Dell spokesperson Mike Siemienas said on Saturday:
In mid-August, we closed our offices and ceased all Russian operations.
Russia’s industry ministry said on Friday that many of the researchers and engineers working for Dell in Russia had already been offered new jobs, after media reports saying the company was making a full exit.
Updated
Miranda Bryant and Mark Townsend report:
A “shocking” 50,000 Ukrainian refugees in the UK could be made homeless next year, the government has been warned, but ministers are refusing to offer a fresh package of support to offset the impending crisis.
As the cost of living crisis bites and with no end in sight to the war with Russia, fears are mounting that the government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme will unravel next month when refugees’ initial six-month placements with hosts end without alternative accommodation in place.
Although Boris Johnson has framed the UK’s response to Russia’s invasion as a principled triumph, a number of organisations warn that a key response of his government to the conflict’s refugee crisis could prompt a “disastrous rise in homelessness”.
Read more: 50,000 Ukrainian refugees in UK facing homelessness ‘disaster’ next year
On the opposite shore from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the towns of Nikopol and Marhanets were hit by shells on Saturday afternoon and evening, Nikopol’s mayor, Yevhen Yevtushenko, said on Telegram.
‘Welcome to the refugee lifestyle,’ says Eno Enyieokpon, a fashion designer who is re-establishing his brand, Enno, in Budapest having left everything behind in Kyiv.
Identifying as a black Ukrainian, Eno says most of the ideas that have changed his life as a designer have come from tough times in Ukraine.
As he waits to bring his machines from Kyiv, and works on new shows while navigating the unfamiliar Hungarian system, he is optimistic about the future, telling other Ukrainian refugees: ‘If we had the will to withstand the Russians we also have the willpower to move and forge ahead in life.’
Updated
Russia has lost 'tens of thousands' of troops and it 'remains unclear' how it will recruit more, says MoD
Russia has lost “tens of thousands” of troops and it is not yet clear how they will seek to recruit more soldiers, the latest British intelligence update said.
The latest UK Ministry of Defence briefing said that President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week to increase the size of the armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its sixth month.
The briefing said that under the Russian legislation now in place, the decree is unlikely to make “substantive progress” towards increasing Russia’s combat power.
This is because Russia has lost tens of thousands of troops; very few new contract servicemen are being recruited; and conscripts are technically not obliged to serve outside of Russian territory.
However it “remains unclear” how Russia will try to fill its increase in armed forces members, said the MoD.
It could recruit more volunteer “contract” soldiers or lift annual targets for conscriptions, the update added.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 28 August 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 28, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/WfWw8IS4aT
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Y9UN7RpEbL
Updated
Two dead after Russian assault on Bakhmut
Two people were killed in Russian firing on Bakhmut, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Saturday.
The eastern city is a significant target for Russian and separatist forces seeking to take control of the parts of Donetsk they don’t hold.
Associated Press also reported local government officials as saying that in the Black Sea region of Mykolaiv, one person was killed and another wounded in Russian firing.
We have not been able to independently verify these battlefield reports.
Updated
Millions of tonnes of food from past harvests in Ukraine still need to be cleared to make room in silos for the next one, the United Nations coordinator for the grains agreement says.
More than 1m tonnes of grains and other foods have been exported under the grains deal brokered by Turkey and the UN, Reuters reports.
Amir Abdulla, the UN coordinator for the Black Sea grain initiative, said on Saturday that the deal “has started creating some space but much more grain needs to shift to make space for the new harvest”.
Ukrainian and Russian forces continue to accuse each other of shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, with Ukraine saying Russian forces fired on areas just across the river from the complex and Russia saying Ukrainian shells hit a building where nuclear fuel is stored.
The claims on Saturday came amid continuing concerns about the potential for a radiation leak at Europe’s largest nuclear facility, Associated Press reports.
The governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, said Russian Grad missiles and artillery shells hit the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, each 10km (six miles) across the Dnieper River from the plant in south-eastern Ukraine.
A Russian defence ministry spokesperson, Igor Konashenkov, said Ukrainian forces had fired on the plant from Marhanets. Seventeen Ukrainian shells hit the plant over the past day, he said, with four striking the roof of a building that stored nuclear fuel.
Updated
Summary
Concern persists about the potential for a radiation leak at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine’s state energy operator has warned there are “risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances” at the Russian-occupied plant. Authorities were distributing iodine tablets to residents who live near the plant in case of radiation exposure.
Russia and Ukraine traded fresh accusations of each other shelling the area around the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, on Saturday. Moscow’s troops have “repeatedly shelled” the site of the plant over the past day, the Ukrainian state nuclear company, Energoatom, said. Russia’s defence ministry has claimed Ukraine’s troops “shelled the territory of the station three times” in the past day.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is trying to negotiate access to the plant for an urgent inspection mission “to help stabilise the nuclear safety and security situation there”. Energoatom head Petro Kotin told the Guardian a visit could come before the end of the month, but the Ukrainian energy minister, Lana Zerkal, told a local radio station she was not convinced Russia was negotiating in good faith.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued a statement marking Ukraine’s Aviation Day, in which he pledged that Kyiv’s troops would “destroy the occupiers’ potential step by step”. The Ukrainian president vowed that the Russian “invaders will die like dew on the sun”.
Russia has probably increased the intensity of its attacks in the Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region over the past five days, according to British intelligence. Pro-Russia separatists have most likely made progress towards the centre of Pisky village, near Donetsk airport, but Russian forces overall have secured few territorial gains, the latest report from the UK Ministry of Defence says.
Russia has blocked an agreement at the UN aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The failure to agree to a joint statement, due to Moscow’s objection to a clause about control over the Zaporizhzhia plant, is the latest blow to hopes of maintaining an arms control regime and keeping a lid on a rekindled arms race.
Ukrainian sailors will be allowed to leave the country for work, Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers has said. The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said men of draft age employed as crew members would be allowed to leave the country so long as they had permission from their local conscription offices to cross the border.
Britain’s defence ministry has said it is giving six underwater drones to Ukraine to help clear its coastline of mines and make grain shipments safer. In addition, dozens of Ukrainian navy personnel will be taught to use the drones over the coming months, the ministry said.
Kazakhstan, a neighbour and ally of Russia, has suspended all arms exports for a year, its government said, amid the conflict in Ukraine and western sanctions against Moscow.
Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to protect the airspace of their Nato ally Slovakia, as it upgrades its air force from legacy Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters to a new batch of F-16 jets from the US.
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton and these are the latest developments as it approaches 9.20am in Kyiv on this Sunday 28 August 2022.
Updated
