Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company Energoatom said on Sunday that a worker was injured when Russian forces again bombed the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, on Saturday night. It told Telegram that the site of the plant’s dry storage facility, where 174 containers of spent nuclear fuel stored in the countryside, hit by rockets. Here is the UK Ministry of Defense’s latest intelligence update on Ukraine. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken landed in South Africa on Sunday to begin a three-nation visit aimed at countering Russian influence on the continent, AFP reports. The visit comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made an extensive tour of Africa late last month. South Africa has remained neutral in the Ukraine war, refusing to join Western calls to condemn Moscow, which had opposed apartheid before the end of white rule in 1994. Blinken will hold talks on Monday with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor and also make an announcement on the US administration’s new strategy for Africa, Pretoria said in a statement. They will “discuss current and recent developments related to the global geopolitical situation,” it said. The State Department last month called African countries “geostrategic players and critical partners on the most pressing issues of our time, from promoting an open and stable international system, addressing the impacts of climate change, food insecurity and global pandemics to shaping our technological and economic futures”. Blinken, who is on his second trip to Africa since his appointment early last year, is due to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda later this week. This analysis by the Guardian’s Africa correspondent Jason Burke of Lavrov’s tour gives a good insight into the battle for influence on the African continent. You can read it here: More details about ships that left Ukrainian ports. They included the Glory, loaded with 66,000 tons of corn bound for Istanbul, and the Riva Wind, loaded with 44,000 tons of corn, bound for Iskenderun, Turkey, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. It said the other two ships that left Ukraine were the Star Helena, carrying 45,000 tonnes of meal bound for China, and the Mustafa Necati, carrying 6,000 tonnes of sunflower oil and bound for Italy, Reuters reports. The JCC also said it was close to finalizing shipping procedures to arrange operations to support the implementation of the grains agreement. The procedures were expected to be made public early this week, he said. The first four ships left Ukraine last week under the agreement. The JCC said it has also authorized the movement, pending inspection, of the Osprey S, bound for Chornomorsk . This ship is currently at anchor northwest of Istanbul and was due to be inspected on Sunday. On Saturday, the JCC completed its inspection of the Navistar, which was cleared to sail, and its joint inspection teams were due to continue their inspections on Sunday in the morning for the remaining two ships that left Ukrainian ports on Friday. The first ship to leave a Ukrainian port under the deal will not arrive in Lebanon on Sunday as planned, Ukraine’s embassy in Lebanon announced. The Razoni departed Odessa last Monday carrying 26,527 tons of corn. The embassy told Reuters the ship was “delayed” and “did not arrive today”, without providing details on a new arrival date or the reason for the delay. Shipping data on MarineTraffic.com showed the Razoni off the Turkish coast on Sunday morning. An official of Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine’s Kherson region has died after an assassination attempt, Moscow-backed local authorities said. Vitaly Gura, the deputy head of Kakhovka district, “died of his wounds,” local official Katerina Gubareva said on Telegram, AFP reports. Gura was attacked at his home on Saturday morning and was seriously injured by bullets, a Russian-backed government source told the TASS news agency. Kakhovka is located about 80 kilometers (50 mi) east of the city of Kherson. Several assassination attempts have been reported against officials in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories since the start of its military operation in Ukraine in February.
Four more ships carrying food are leaving Black Sea ports
Four ships carrying Ukrainian food left Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday as part of a deal to unblock the country’s seaborne exports, Ukrainian and Turkish officials said. The four bulk carriers were loaded with more than 160,000 tons of corn and other food, Reuters reports. The resumption of grain exports is overseen by a Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul, staffed by Russians, Ukrainians, Turks and UN staff. The United Nations and Turkey brokered the deal last month after UN warnings of possible outbreaks of famine in parts of the world due to the disruption of grain shipments from Ukraine that had squeezed supplies and sent prices skyrocketing. Before the invasion, Russia and Ukraine together accounted for nearly a third of world wheat exports. The JCC has approved the departure of a total of five new ships through the Black Sea Corridor: four ships departing from Chornomorsk and Odesa carrying 161,084 metric tons of food and one inbound. The first four ships left Ukraine last week under the deal Updated at 09.22 BST
Russian shelling was reported in dozens of cities
The Ukrainian military said Russian shelling was recorded in dozens of towns along the eastern and southern front lines. Reuters reports that Ukraine’s military said late Saturday that Russian forces had shelled dozens of front-line towns and were trying to attack six different areas in the Donetsk region, which failed to gain any ground and were held by Ukrainian forces. Reuters was unable to verify either side’s claims about developments on the battlefield. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that last week its forces “achieved strong results” in destroying Russia’s logistics supplies and rear bases. He said in a late night speech: “Each strike on the enemy’s ammunition depots, their command posts and accumulations of Russian equipment saves the lives of all of us, the lives of Ukrainian servicemen and civilians. Reuters also reports:
Russia’s war in Ukraine is set to enter a new phase, with most of the fighting shifting to a nearly 350-kilometer (217-mile) front stretching southwest from near Zaporizhia to Kherson, British military intelligence said. North Macedonia has agreed to supply tanks and planes to Ukraine to prevent Moscow’s continued invasion, a senior aide to Ukraine’s president Mykhailo Podolyak said. The next arms package to Ukraine from the United States was expected to be $1 billion and include ammunition for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Updated at 09.23 BST More about the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant Reuters reports:
Shells struck a high-voltage power line at the plant, prompting operators to shut down a reactor even though no radioactive leak was detected. The factory was seized by Russian forces in early March, but is still operated by its Ukrainian technicians. Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom blamed Russia for the damage to the power plant. The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian forces of bombing the plant, saying the radioactive leak had been avoided only by luck. The United States accused Russia of using it as a “nuclear shield”, while the Russian Defense Ministry said damage to the plant had only been avoided thanks to the “skillful, competent and effective actions” of its units.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Saturday:
I am extremely concerned about yesterday’s bombing of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which highlights the very real danger of a nuclear disaster.”
Both sides have accused each other of engaging in “nuclear terrorism”.
Read more here:
The IAEA expresses concern over the bombing of nuclear power plants
Caroline Davis Good morning and welcome to the blog, where we begin with a summary of the latest developments.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency expressed serious concerns about the bombing of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced it had opened criminal charges against what it said was Russian military shelling of the Zaporizhia power plant on Friday. The Ukrainian military said Russian shelling was recorded in dozens of towns along the eastern and southern front lines. The head of Amnesty International’s office in Ukraine has resigned from the human rights body in a dispute with it after the organization accused Ukraine’s armed forces of putting civilians at risk by deploying troops in residential areas during the Russian invasion. A foreign-flagged ship arrived in Ukraine on Saturday for the first time since the start of the war and will be loaded with grain, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said.
I’m Caroline Davies and I’ll be taking you through other developments throughout the day. You can contact [email protected] Updated at 09.23 BST
