Russia-Ukraine war: risk of radioactive leak at ‘repeatedly shelled’ Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, operator warns – live

The UK is giving underwater drones to Ukraine and training Ukrainian personnel in Britain to use them to clear their coastline of mines, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

Dozens of Ukrainian personnel will be taught to use the autonomous minehunting vehicles by the Royal Navy and US partners over the coming months, with some already commencing their training.

Six autonomous minehunting vehicles are being sent to search for Russian mines in the waters off its coast. Three vehicles are due to be sent from UK stocks while another three will be bought from industry.

The lightweight autonomous vehicle can be used in shallow coastal environments and are designed to operate at depths of up to 100 metres to detect, locate and identify mines through the use of a series of sensors.

Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to protect the airspace of their Nato ally Slovakia, as it upgrades its air force from its legacy Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters to a new batch of F-16 jets from the US.

The agreement is due to come into effect at the beginning of September and will last a year and a half, the defence ministers of the countries agreed at a meeting during the Slovak International Air Fest.

Slovakia has expressed a willingness to transfer the grounded planes to Ukraine but the defence minister, Jaroslav Nad, said no deal had been reached with Kyiv.

Nad said: “The possibility is on the table, and once there is an agreement we will inform you.”

Emma Graham-Harrison

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.

It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• Concern about the potential for a radiation leak at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is persisting. Ukraine’s state energy operator has warned that 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 have accused each other of shelling the area around Europe’s largest nuclear plant. Moscow’s troops have “repeatedly shelled” the site of the nuclear 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.

• A team of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog is poised to make an emergency visit to the Zaporizhzhia plant, according to reports. Sources have told the Wall Street Journal it is “almost certain” that a mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency will visit the plant early next week, although details are still being finalised.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued a statement marking Ukraine’s Aviation Day, in which he pledged that Kyiv’s troops will “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 had secured few territorial gains, the latest report from the UK Ministry of Defence says.

• Russia has blocked an agreement at the UN that was aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). The failure to agree to a joint statement, due to Moscow’s objection to a clause about control over the Zaporizhzhia power 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, the country’s cabinet of ministers has said. The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said men of draft age employed as crew members will be allowed to leave the country so long as they have 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.

A Russian rocket hit Kharkiv’s historic district in the early hours of Saturday, leaving one person injured, according to police.

The rocket damaged nearby buildings, leaving a large crater in the road. A local police officer told Reuters:

There are no military objects, no military equipment. Only residential buildings with regular citizens near the place of impact.

Tetiana Zviahintseva, a local shopkeeper who was sweeping scattered shards of broken glass in her store, said:

Horror and nightmare – they [Russians] torture our city. The endless shelling exhausted everybody.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has issued a statement marking the country’s Aviation Day, in which he pledged that Kyiv’s troops will “destroy the occupiers’ potential step by step”.

The Ukrainian leader posted a series of photos dedicated to the country’s air force and vowed that the Russian “invaders will die like dew on the sun”.

Zelenskiy said:

Ukrainian soldiers will destroy the occupiers’ potential step by step, and the day will come when the enemy will perish in Zaporizhzhia, in the south, in the east of the country, and in Crimea.

The invaders will die like dew on the sun, and our defence is and will be this sun. Happy Ukraine Aviation Day!

Ukraine’s state energy operator has warned that there is a risk of a radioactive leak at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

Moscow’s troops have “repeatedly shelled” the site of the nuclear plant over the past day, Energoatom said.

As of midday on Saturday local time (9am GMT) the plant “operates with the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards”, the operator said in a statement.

Energoatom said:

As a result of periodic shelling, the infrastructure of the station has been damaged, there are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances, and the fire hazard is high.

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed Ukraine’s troops “shelled the territory of the station three times” in the past day.

Ukraine’s state nuclear company, Energoatom, has claimed Russian forces shelled the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant complex in southern Ukraine.

In a statement, Energoatom said:

Over the last [24 hours], Russian troops again shelled the grounds of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The damage is currently being ascertained.

Russia’s defence ministry earlier accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the nuclear plant complex three times in the last 24 hours.

It is not possible to verify either side’s claims.

On Friday, Energoatom said Ukrainian technicians had managed to partly reconnect the Zaporizhzhia plant to its grid under the gaze of occupying forces. The situation, however, remains fragile as fighting continues around the plant.