Summary
The time in Kyiv is 9pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s top stories:
- The United States will provide an additional $4.5 billion (£3.7 bn) to Ukraine’s government, bringing its total budgetary support since Russia’s February invasion to $8.5 billion (£7 bn), the US Agency for International Development has announced. The funding, coordinated with the US Treasury Department through the World Bank, will go to the Ukraine government in tranches, beginning with a $3 billion (£2.5 bn) disbursement in August, USAid, the Agency for International Development, said.
- Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has accused Ukraine of taking “Europe hostage” over the situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. The plant is occupied by Russian forces, and each side has claimed the other has caused damage to the complex by shelling it. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been seeking to inspect it. Zakharova said: “The leaders of the United Nations and the IAEA, over and over again, do not dare to directly name the source of the threat. They are demonstrating their unwillingness to point the finger at Kyiv.”
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for new international sanctions on Moscow for “nuclear terror”. The UN nuclear watchdog has called for an immediate end to all military action near the plant after it was hit by shelling on Saturday night, causing one of the reactors to shut down and creating a “very real risk of a nuclear disaster”.
- The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is operating normally according to reports from Yevgeniy Balitsky, head of the Russian-installed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region. The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom called for the plant to be made a military-free zone, and said there should be a team of peacekeepers present at the site.
- Ukraine conducted long-range strikes on Russian troop bases and two key bridges across the Dnieper River overnight. The strikes hit the only two crossings Russia has to the pocket of southern Ukrainian territory it has occupied on the western bank of the river, said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command. “The results are rather respectable, hits on the Antonivskyi and Kakhovskyi bridges,” she said on television. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration imposed on occupied Kherson told Interfax “The equipment of the builders who are repairing the Antonivskiy Bridge burned down, there are no critical damages. But the opening of the bridge is slightly delayed.”
- A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to 10 years in jail after finding him guilty of violating the laws and customs of war by firing a tank at a multi-story apartment block, an interior ministry official said.
- Ukraine has received its first three Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft systems from Germany and will use them to defend important infrastructure facilities, the southern military command has said.
- The Russian-installed head of southern Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia region signed on Monday a decree providing for a referendum on joining Russia.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Thanks for following along.
The Pentagon has unveiled the latest billion dollar slice of US military aid to Ukraine.
The main items are more ammunition for the 16 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) the US has sent, as well as new missiles for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), a thousand Javelin anti-tank missiles, and hundreds of Swedish made AT4 shoulder launched anti-tank systems.
Colin Kahl, the Pentagon policy chief, noted it was the 18th drawdown on US military stocks sent to Ukraine, making a total of $9.8bn in security assistance so far under the Biden administration.
“This is the largest single drawdown of US arms and equipment utilizing this authority to date,” Kahl said. “The package provides a significant amount of additional ammunition, weapons and equipment, the types of which the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country.”
Kahl said the rockets (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems or GMLRS) the US has been sending to Ukraine to fire from the Himars mobile launch vehicles, are “having a very profound effect”.
“This is a 200 pound warhead. It’s kind of the equivalent of an airstrike, frankly, a precision guided airstrike,” he said. “These are GPS-guided munitions. They’ve been very effective in hitting things that previously the Ukrainians had difficulty hitting reliably - so command-and-control nodes, sustainment and logistics hubs, key radar systems and other things. And what it’s done is it’s made it more difficult for the Russians to move forces around the battlefield.
“They’ve had to move certain assets back away from the Himars. It slowed them down. It’s made it harder for them to resupply other forces. So I think it’s having real operational effects.”
He estimated Russian casualties as 70,000 to 80,000 dead and wounded.
Updated
World Bank announces additional $4.5 bn in Ukraine aid
The US will provide an additional $4.5bn (£3.7bn) to Ukraine’s government, bringing its total budgetary support since Russia’s February invasion to $8.5bn (£7bn), the US Agency for International Development has announced.
The funding, coordinated with the US Treasury Department through the World Bank, will go to the Ukraine government in tranches, beginning with a $3bn (£2.5 bn) disbursement in August, USAid, the Agency for International Development, said.
Reuters reported:
It follows previous transfers of $1.7bn in July and $1.3bn in June, USAid said. Washington has also provided billions of dollars in military support, and plans a new $1bn weapons package shortly. The U.S. funds are to help the Ukrainian government maintain essential functions, including social and financial assistance for the growing poor population, children with disabilities, and millions of internally displaced persons, as the war drags on.
Ukrainian officials estimate the country faces a $5bn-a-month fiscal shortfall - or 2.5% of pre-war gross domestic product - due to the cost of the war and declining tax revenues. Economists say that will swell Ukraine’s annual deficit to 25% of GDP, compared with 3.5% before the conflict.
The World Bank estimates that 55% of Ukrainians will be living in poverty by the end of 2023 as a result of the war and the large numbers of displaced persons, compared with 2.5% before the start of the war.
Updated
Ukraine has arrested two people working for Russian intelligence services who planned to kill the Ukrainian defence minister and the head of the country’s military intelligence agency, Ukraine’s domestic security service said on Monday.
The Security Service of Ukraine foiled the plot by the Russian GRU military intelligence agency to use a sabotage group to carry out three murders including that of a prominent Ukrainian activist, the agency said.
The assertions could not be independently verified by Reuters and there was no immediate reaction to the Ukraine statement from Moscow or Russian state-run media.
The suspects, one a resident of the eastern Luhansk region held by Russia-backed separatists and the other a resident of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, were promised up to $150,000 (£124,000) by Russian handlers for the murder of each of their targets, the SBU said.
The man from Luhansk region entered Ukraine from Belarus and was detained in the city of Kovel in north-west Ukraine along with the Kyiv resident, the statement said.
Updated
The Russian-installed head of the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region signed a decree on Monday providing for a referendum on joining Russia, in the latest sign that Moscow is moving ahead with its plans to annex seized Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has ruled out any peace talks with Russia if the country proceeds with referendums in the occupied areas.
Yevgeny Balitskyi, the head of the pro-Russia administration in the region, announced the decision to kickstart the process during a pro-Moscow forum entitled “We are with Russia” organised in Melitopol, the largest city controlled by Russia in Zaporizhzhia.
“I am signing the order for the central election committee to start the preparations for holding a referendum on the reunification of the Zaporizhzhia region with the Russian Federation,” he said.
Roughly two-thirds of Zaporizhzhia is under Russian occupation, part of a swathe of southern Ukraine that Moscow captured early in the war, including most of the neighbouring Kherson region, where Russian officials have also discussed plans for a referendum.
Updated
Zaporizhzhia staff 'working under barrels of Russian guns', says Ukraine's IAEA envoy
Workers at the nuclear complex are “working under the barrels of Russian guns”, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog said on Monday, calling for an international mission to the plant this month.
Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk said Russian forces want to cause electricity blackouts in southern Ukraine by shelling the Zaporizhzhia complex, adding that damage to the facility from Russian attacks means any radiation could not be detected.
Tsymbaliuk spoke in Vienna as international alarm over artillery attacks on the Zaporizhzhia plant grew, with Kyiv warning of the risk of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe and appealing for the area to be made a demilitarised zone, Reuters reported.
Updated
Russia accuses Ukraine of taking 'Europe hostage' over Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has accused Ukraine of taking “Europe hostage” over the situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
The plant is occupied by Russian forces, and each side has claimed the other has caused damage to the complex by shelling it. The International Atomic Energy Agency has been seeking to inspect it.
Zakharova said: “The leaders of the United Nations and the IAEA, over and over again, do not dare to directly name the source of the threat. They are demonstrating their unwillingness to point the finger at Kyiv.”
Reuters reported that she went on to say: “They are taking the whole of Europe hostage and are not against setting fire to it for the sake of their Nazi idols.”
Updated
Ukraine’s atomic energy agency Energoatom is quoting Dmytro Lubinets, the country’s human rights ombudsman, on its official Telegram channel. It says:
The Russian Federation continues acts of nuclear terrorism in relation to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) facilities and its personnel. According to the information of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, the territory of the Zaporizhzhia NPP is currently mined, and individual employees of the station are subject to torture and enforced disappearance, and they receive threats. This poses a threat to the lives of employees and prevents the normal operation of the facility.
As the commissioner for human rights of the parliament of Ukraine, I first of all declare the flagrant threat posed by the presence of the Russian military in Zaporizhzhia NPP not only for tens of millions of Ukrainians, but also for the whole world. The destructive consequences of nuclear terrorism and the spread of radioactivity do not ‘respect’ state borders, and radioactive emissions spread uncontrollably, the consequences of radioactive pollution remain for decades.
Once again, I call on the secretary general of the UN, the IAEA and the entire world community to take all possible measures to send a security mission to the Zaporizhzhia NPP, to completely demilitarise the territory of the NPP, and to provide security guarantees to the employees of the nuclear plant and residents of the city.
Reuters is carrying an opposing line from the Russian side. It quotes Russia’s foreign ministry as saying western nations are unwilling to point the finger of blame for the alleged shelling of the plant at Ukrainian forces, and that while Russia sees the IAEA’s request to inspect Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv has an interest in not allowing the inspection to take place.
Ukraine has previously objected to the idea that the IAEA would visit Zaporizhzhia, as they fear it would lend legitimacy and normalise Russia’s occupation of the facility and the territory that surrounds it. For their part, if Ukraine’s claims that staff are being mistreated there are true, then Russia also has a vested interest in avoiding an inspection that might reveal this.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said if Russia were allowed to bully Ukraine, to invade and take territory without being opposed, then it would be “open season” around the world.
The US’s top diplomat was speaking at a news conference alongside South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, as part of a visit that will also take him to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
“If we allow a big country to bully a smaller one, to simply invade it and take its territory, then it’s going to be open season, not just in Europe but around the world,” Blinken said.
Reuters reported that Blinken said the US felt it was important to stand up to Russia because its aggression against Ukraine threatened the foundational principles of the international system.
Pandor said no one in South Africa supported the war in Ukraine but that the prescripts of international law were not being applied evenly. “We should be equally concerned at what is happening to the people of Palestine, as we are with what is happening to the people of Ukraine,” she said.
South Africa abstained from a United Nations vote denouncing the invasion of Ukraine, and like other African countries has resisted calls to condemn Russia.
Updated
Ivan Fedorov, Ukraine’s elected mayor of Melitopol, has had harsh words on Telegram this afternoon following news that pro-Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia are moving towards holding a referendum to join the Russian Federation.
Fedorov, who was forced into exile early in the war, writes:
The collaborators decided to make another propaganda picture for the Russian mass media. They brought a crowd from other temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region to Melitopol – 700 people, because even that many cannot be recruited among the local population – and held a ‘forum’ in the city’s palace of culture.
Yevhen Balytskyi, the Gauleiter of the Zaporizhzhia region, who at one time failed miserably in the local elections, gaining less than 10%, conducted the coven. It is difficult to guess what plans will appear in the head of this mentally ill local tsar and Kremlin henchman of tomorrow. In any case, his ‘orders’ have no legal significance.
The RIA Novosti news agency reported earlier that Balytskyi signed the order for a referendum at a forum entitled “We are together with Russia”. It quotes Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the regional administration imposed by pro-Russian secessionists saying on the radio:
We are preparing 100 percent. Everything is working out. We will have a voting format that is quite understandable to people. We will not conduct any experiments.
Updated
A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to 10 years in jail on Monday after finding him guilty of violating the laws and customs of war by firing a tank at a multistorey apartment block, an interior ministry official said.
Reuters reports the court in Chernihiv, north-east Ukraine, found Mikhail Kulikov, guilty of hitting the residential building on 26 February, two days after Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began.
Kulikov, who was capture while fighting, pleaded guilty and sought a more lenient punishment because he said he had been following orders, the Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office said.
The residential block was not a military target or being used for military purposes, it said. Russia has repeatedly denied that its forces deliberately target civilians.
- This is Martin Belam picking up the live blog again for an hour. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Updated
Russia is ready to facilitate a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Moscow’s permanent representative to the nuclear watchdog as saying on Monday.
Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, in recent days, Reuters reported.
Updated
Natalia Kompaniets spends her days running over a dilemma with her daughter as they sit in their temporary new home, a simply furnished room on the first floor of an unmarked building, in a nondescript suburb of Budapest.
“Every day we think, should we go back or not? There’s a battle in our souls,” said Kompaniets, a 51-year-old who left the town of Obukhiv outside Kyiv in early March along with her daughter and young granddaughter.
Here, as well as elsewhere in Hungary, Poland and other countries neighbouring Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees – mostly women, children and elderly people – are weighing up similar questions.
If they are from a relatively safe part of Ukraine, is it time to return? Should they wait for the war to end? And how long would that mean waiting?
Updated
Russian forces want to cause electricity blackouts in southern Ukraine by shelling its Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex, the Ukrainian ambassador to the global nuclear watchdog has said, calling for an international mission to the plant this month.
“We will use all possible channels of diplomacy to bring the IAEA and UN closer to conducting this mission,” Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, the ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Vienna.
“We really need it urgently, as soon as possible, I would say not later than the end of this month,” he added.
Updated
Ukraine has received its first three German Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft systems and will use them to defend important infrastructure facilities, the southern military command has said.
The air defence systems, which are operated by three-person crews and can hit targets at up to two and half miles, are one of various pieces of western military kit being supplied to Ukraine to help it fend off the Russian invasion, Reuters reported.
Updated
Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia set for referendum on joining Russia
The Russian-installed head of southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region has signed a decree providing for a referendum on joining Russia, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Monday.
It comes as Russia’s defence ministry said that Ukraine had shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, the biggest in Europe, on 7 August, damaging high-voltage power lines and forcing the plant to reduce its output.
In its daily military briefing, the defence ministry said Ukraine had shelled the power station at around 12.40pm (9.40am GMT) from positions near the town of Marhanets, Reuters reported.
The shelling damaged a high-voltage power line supplying electricity to the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions – parts of which are under Russian control – in southern Ukraine, the ministry said.
A power surge also occurred as a result of the shelling, Moscow said, triggering a safety system that cut off the power supply, it added.
Updated
German chancellor Olaf Scholz does not consider support for Russia sanctions to be waning even with energy bills expected to surge further, a government spokesperson said on Monday.
“We face difficult months ahead,” the spokesperson said, adding: “But it is clear that we stand firmly on the side of Ukraine and we stand behind the sanctions that we agreed together with the European Union and the international community”.
Speaking at a regular news conference in Berlin, the spokesperson also ruled out approval for the shelved Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Reuters reported.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed its forces shot down 19 US-made Himars missiles across eastern and southern Ukraine, and destroyed Himars vehicles near the Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk.
Reuters was unable to verify the reports.
More on this claim as it comes.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Monday there was no basis for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents at the moment.
In response to a question about Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan’s offers to broker peace talks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy could meet only after negotiators from both sides had “done their homework”.
Negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv have been stalled for months, with each side blaming the other for a lack of progress, Reuters reported.
“The Ukrainian delegation has gone off the radar, there is no negotiation process now,” Peskov said on Monday.
“As for a meeting between presidents Putin and Zelenskiy, it is possible only after all the homework has been done by the delegations. This is missing, so there are no necessary prerequisites for the meeting,” he added.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
- Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for renewed shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for new international sanctions on Moscow for “nuclear terror”. The UN nuclear watchdog has called for an immediate end to all military action near the plant after it was hit by shelling on Saturday night, causing one of the reactors to shut down and creating a “very real risk of a nuclear disaster”.
- The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is operating normally according to reports from Yevgeniy Balitsky, head of the Russian-installed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region. The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom called for the plant to be made a military-free zone, and said there should be a team of peacekeepers present at the site.
- Ukraine conducted long-range strikes on Russian troop bases and two key bridges across the Dnieper River overnight. The strikes hit the only two crossings Russia has to the pocket of southern Ukrainian territory it has occupied on the western bank of the river, said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command. “The results are rather respectable, hits on the Antonivskyi and Kakhovskyi bridges,” she said on television. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration imposed on occupied Kherson told Interfax: “The equipment of the builders who are repairing the Antonivskiy bridge burned down, there are no critical damages. But the opening of the bridge is slightly delayed.”
- Four ships carrying Ukrainian foodstuffs sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday. Pope Francis welcomed the departure of the ships carrying grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports saying this could be a model for dialogue to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. Two more grain-carrying ships have sailed from Ukraine’s Black sea ports on Monday, and the Polarnet, carrying 12,000 tons of Ukrainian corn, has arrived in Turkey.
- Russia is strengthening its positions and numbers on Ukraine’s southern front to ready itself for a Ukrainian counteroffensive and is likely to be preparing the ground to attack, according to British and Ukrainian military authorities. “Russian troops are almost certainly amassing in the south, either waiting for a Ukrainian counteroffensive or preparing to attack. Long convoys of Russian military trucks, tanks, artillery and other things continue to move from the Donbas to the south-west,” the UK’s defence ministry said.
- Russian shelling was recorded on Saturday in dozens of towns along the eastern and southern frontlines, according to the Ukrainian military. It also said Russian forces attempted to conduct assault in six different areas in the eastern Donetsk region, all of which failed to gain any territory and were held back by Ukrainian forces.
- Ukraine is investigating almost 26,000 suspected war crime cases committed since Russia’s invasion in February and has charged 135 people, its chief war crimes prosecutor told Reuters. Of those charged, approximately 15 are in Ukrainian custody and the remaining 120 remain at large.
- Zelenskiy said on Sunday that there could be no talks with Russia if it proceeds with referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine on joining Russia. Russian forces now hold large areas of territory in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and in southern areas, where officials have raised the possibility of holding referendums.
- Finland has registered a record number of asylum seekers following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, beating a previous high set during the 2015 migrant crisis.
- Human rights group Amnesty International apologised for the “distress and anger” caused by a report that accused Ukraine of endangering civilians. The apology comes after Amnesty’s Ukraine head Oksana Pokalchuk said that she was resigning as she opposed the report’s publication, saying the human rights group unwittingly “created material that sounded like support for Russian narratives of the invasion”.
Updated
The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom called this morning for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to be made a military-free zone, and said there should be a team of peacekeepers present at the site.
Reuters reports he made the comments on television after Ukraine and Russia accused each of shelling the nuclear power plant – Europe’s biggest – which lies in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine.
At the same time, Energoatom has posted on its official Telegram channel accusing Russia of mining the plant. It claims to be quoting “the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence forces of the Russian Federation, major general Valeriy Vasyliev”, accusing him of saying: “We have planted mines in all the important facilities of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. And we do not hide this from the enemy. We warned them. The enemy knows that the plant will be either Russian – or no one’s.”
Updated
AFP reports Finland has registered a record number of asylum seekers following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, beating a previous high set during the 2015 migrant crisis.
“By 4 August, those fleeing Ukraine due to the Russian military attack had submitted 35,074 applications for temporary protection,” the Finnish immigration service said in a statement.
More than 37,000 people are currently registered in the reception system, “which is more than ever before”.
“One third of those fleeing Ukraine are children,” the immigration service said.
The latest figures from UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, show that over 6.3 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is operating normally according to reports from Yevgeniy Balitsky, the head of the Russian-installed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region.
Reuters reports he told Interfax: “We have information from the military and representatives of Russia’s Rosatom, who are here, just watching the situation. We have information from them that everything is operating in normal mode.”
Updated
Ukraine conducted long-range strikes on Russian troop bases and two key bridges across the Dnieper River overnight, Ukrainian officials have said.
The strikes hit the only two crossings Russia has to the pocket of southern Ukrainian territory it has occupied on the western bank of the river, said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command.
“The results are rather respectable, hits on the Antonivskyi and Kakhovskyi bridges,” Reuters reports she said on television.
The claims have not been independently verified, but earlier Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the pro-Russian administration imposed on occupied Kherson, told the Interfax news agency that the Antonivskyi bridge had been struck again.
Updated
Here is a selection of images that have been sent to us today over the newswires from Sloviansk, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Updated
Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, appears to have confirmed on Telegram that at least one person has been killed in a strike this morning, posting “Unfortunately, as a result of the morning shelling, one person died, another one was injured. Information is being updated. Emergency medical personnel are on site.”
In the last few minutes the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov has posted to Telegram to say:
Now Pavlovo Pole is being shelled already in the morning … minutes ago there was an explosion. There is definitely no military infrastructure in this peaceful and densely populated area. I ask everyone to be in shelters – the shelling can be repeated.
Updated
Here is an image that has been sent to us from Turkey of the ship Polarnet arriving at Derince port. It is carrying 12,000 tons of Ukrainian corn.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has said that two people were killed in shelling on the region in the last 24 hours. He claimed that overnight the roof of the administrative building in Kharkiv’s Kyiv district had caught fire due to the shelling. His message ended:
As you can see, the Russians, because of their lack of success at the front, are striking peaceful towns and villages in the region. But we are stronger than their pathetic attempts to intimidate us. Victory is ours!
In the last few minutes he has issued a broad warning to citizens in Kharkiv, posting to Telegram to say: “Residents of Kharkiv and the region, stay in shelters as much as possible. The Russian occupiers strike Kharkiv. Do not leave safe places.”
Updated
In his daily status update, Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has cautioned residents about the information sources they use, saying overnight rumours had been spread about a failure of the air alert system. He wrote on Telegram:
On 8 August, at 2.57am, one of the Telegram channels spread information that there was an air alert in Lviv, but due to technical reasons, the city and phone applications did not turn on the notification. This information is not true! There was no threat. Follow and trust only official sources of information.
The claim has not been independently verified.
Elsewhere in his daily update, Kozytskyi said there had been one genuine air alert overnight, but that “the danger did not materialise”, and that 270 people arrived in his region on two evacuation trains from the east of the country. Seven hundred and 68 people departed from the Lviv oblast to Przemyśl in Poland on four trains.
Updated
My colleague Shaun Walker recently wrote a lengthy profile of Dmitry Medvedev on the former Russian leader’s journey from liberal to anti-western hawk.
Medvedev has given an interview to Tass, which it has published this morning, which contains plenty of Medvedev’s anti-western rhetoric. The interview is timed to coincide with the anniversary of Russia’s assault on Georgia in 2008. which took place when he was in power. In today’s interview, Medvedev says:
The criminal policy of the United States is being aggressively pursued in Ukraine. True, with much more active support from the European Union, which has finally lost its independence.
The goal is the same – to destroy Russia. This is the root cause of the extremely aggressive, Russophobic geopolitical process initiated by the west. Our answer is tough, but carefully thought out.
If there is an opportunity to resolve the problem peacefully, at the negotiating table, this should be done. But when there is no way out, you have to react by force. Unfortunately, both in Georgia and Ukraine, the authorities of these countries left Russia no choice, disrupting the processes of political settlement of these conflicts. And we deliberately went for military intervention.
As far as Nato is concerned, its relentless desire to expand along Russia’s borders, like a cancerous tumour, has become a global problem. It makes all reasonable people sick.
You can read the full Medvedev interview with Tass here.
Read Shaun Walker’s profile of Medvedev here: ‘I hate them’: Dmitry Medvedev’s journey from liberal to anti-western hawk
Updated
The self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, an entity recognised as legitimate and official by only three UN member states, has issued a briefing for the day in which they say in the last 24 hours they have killed “up to 53 personnel” from Ukrainian forces, and destroyed four armoured personnel carriers and “seven units of special vehicles”.
The announcement on Telegram also claims that as a result of shelling by Ukrainian forces on the city of Alchevsk in occupied Luhansk, one civilian was killed and 19 people were injured, including five children. They claim that 13 apartment buildings, four kindergartens and a school were damaged.
They claim that “peaceful life is being restored in the territories of the Luhansk People’s Republic liberated from Ukrainian nationalists” and cite more than five hectares being cleared of explosive devices. They also claim to be delivering humanitarian aid.
None of the claims have been independently verified.
Pro-Russian forces say Ukraine has again struck Antonivskiy bridge in occupied Kherson
A key Russian-held bridge into the occupied southern city of Kherson has been hit again overnight by Ukrainian forces, according to reports from the Russian-imposed administration there.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration imposed on occupied Kherson, told the Interfax news agency:
The blow was struck on the Antonivskiy bridge. The equipment of the builders who are repairing the bridge burned down, there are no critical damages. But the opening of the bridge is slightly delayed.
Ukrainian forces have repeatedly targeted the bridge with high-precision weapons as it is one of only two permanent re-supply routes over the Dnieper River, linking the occupied city with the rest of Kherson region and down to annexed Crimea in the south.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Ivan Fedorov, Ukraine’s elected mayor of Melitopol, has posted to Telegram overnight about the situation in the occupied city, which he is in exile from. He told his supporters on Telegram:
Today, high-precision Himars missiles fired at the points of temporary deployment of the occupying forces at industrial sites in various districts of the city of Melitopol.
Last week, the occupiers redeployed a significant part of air defence from Melitopol to Kherson. Tonight is the most effective and shows that the existing enemy air defence units are no longer able to resist Himars. The weakening of the air defence system creates the necessary prerequisites for a successful counteroffensive in the direction of Melitopol.
The claims have not been independently verified.
- This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog for the next few hours. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Two more grain carrying ships have sailed from Ukraine’s Black sea ports, Reuters reports.
The Sacura, which departed from Yuzni, is carrying 11,000 tonnes of soybeans to Italy, while the Arizona, which left Chernomorsk, is carrying 48,458 tonnes of corn to Iskenderun in southern Turkey.
It is highly likely Russia is deploying anti-personnel mines to protect and deter freedom of movement along its defensive lines in Donetsk and Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
The PFM-1 and PFM-1S mines, also known as “butterfly mines”, have the potential to inflict widespread casualties amongst both the military and the local civilian population.
The ministry calls the PFM-1 mines “deeply controversial and indiscriminate weapons”, pointing to the devastating impact the mines had in the Soviet-Afghan war where they allegedly maimed a number of children who mistook them for toys.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 8 August 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 8, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/4z656hQiML
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/RJWkdgIoSB
Updated
Battle for Donbas
Russian forces are trying to gain full control of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region as it stepped up attacks north and north-west of Donetsk city on Sunday, Reuters reports
The Russians attacked Ukrainian positions near the heavily fortified settlements of Piski and Avdiivka, as well as shelling other locations in the Donetsk region, according to Ukraine’s military.
In addition to tightening its grip over the Donbas, Russia is entrenching its position in southern Ukraine, where it has gathered troops in a bid to prevent a potential counter-offensive near Kherson.
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Summary and welcome
Hello, it’s Jordyn Beazley back with you on the Guardian’s live blog as we cover all the latest developments from Ukraine.
UN secretary general António Guterres has called for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe’s largest atomic plant at the weekend.
“Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing,” Guterres told a news conference in Japan on Monday, two days after attending the Hiroshima peace memorial ceremony to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing.
Here’s a summary of the main points you might have missed:
- Russia is strengthening its positions and numbers on Ukraine’s southern front to ready itself for a Ukrainian counteroffensive and is likely to be preparing the ground to attack, according to British and Ukrainian military authorities.
- Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for renewed shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for new international sanctions on Moscow for “nuclear terror”.
- Russian shelling was recorded on Saturday in dozens of towns along the eastern and southern frontlines, according to the Ukrainian military. It also said Russian forces attempted to conduct assault in six different areas in the eastern Donetsk region, all of which failed to gain any territory and were held back by Ukrainian forces.
- Zelenskiy said on Sunday that there could be no talks with Russia if it proceeds with referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine on joining Russia. Russian forces now hold large areas of territory in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and in southern areas, where officials have raised the possibility of holding referendums.
- UK defence secretary Ben Wallace welcomed a decision by Sweden to join countries contributing to the UK-led programme to train Ukrainian personnel in the UK.
- Four ships carrying Ukrainian foodstuffs sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday. Pope Francis welcomed the departure of the ships carrying grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports saying this could be a model for dialogue to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
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