Russia-Ukraine war live: Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant safety ‘deteriorating’ after drone strike

Safety at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit the road around the perimeter of Europe’s largest such facility on Saturday, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has warned.

The warning from International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi came after the Russian management of the plant claimed a Ukrainian drone dropped an explosive charge on a road outside, endangering its staff who use the highway, the Tass state news agency reported.

Moscow seized the nuclear plant in the early days of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It has been shut down by Russian troops but needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.

Russia has opened a criminal court case against two Italian journalists over a TV report from Kursk, state news agency Tass reports, citing the FSB security service.

A four-person from with Italy’s state broadcaster RAI, working under Ukrainian military escort, produced the first foreign media report from the war-damaged Russian town of Sudzha, taken last week during Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Italy’s ambassador on Friday over what it called illegal border crossing by a RAI crew, and the two reporters are scheduled to fly back to the northern Italian city of Milan on Sunday following a decision by RAI that they should do so.

“The company decided to make journalist Stefania Battistini and cameraman Simone Traini return temporarily to Italy, solely to ensure personal safety and security,” RAI said.

RAI union Usigrai and Italy’s national press union FNSI said in a joint statement: “Journalism is not a crime. The Moscow authorities’ possibility of putting Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini on trial is unacceptable. Reporting is not done with prior authorisations.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his calls for Ukraine’s Western allies to allow their weaponry to be used for long-range strikes on Russia.

“The long-range capability for our forces is the answer to all most important, most strategic questions of this war,” Mr Zelensky said in his daily video address to the nation.

“We will strengthen our diplomatic work. We will insist that bold steps and bold decisions are needed.”

Images gathered by the UK military’s first satellite will be shared with allies, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said – pointing to the war in Ukraine as having shown that the use of space is “crucial” to military operations.

The satellite, named Tyche, is the first to be fully owned by the MoD, and was launched on Friday from a rocket owned by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Comparable in size to a washing machine, Tyche was designed and built in the UK through a £22m contract with Surrey Satellites Technology Limited (SSTL).

SSTL received the first signals from Tyche a few hours after lift-off that confirmed the successful launch from Vandenberg space force base, California, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter 11 mission.

Along with military information, it is intended that data from the satellite will be accessible by other UK Government departments for uses including environmental disaster monitoring, mapping information development and tracking the impact of climate change globally, according to the MoD

Over a five-year life span, the 150kg satellite will provide imagery to support the UK armed forces and is the first to be launched by the MoD out of a constellation of satellites under its space-based Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) programme.

Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova has initiated a conversation about prisoner of war exchanges, Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has been cited as saying by the Institute for the Study of War think-tank.

The US-based group cited Mr Lubinets as saying Ukraine had taken some 2,000 Russia personnel prisoner in Kursk over the past 11 days, including conscripts, border guards from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), and personnel from Chechen “Akhmat” units.

Ukraine has rejected Russian claims that it is planning to attack a nuclear plant in Kursk and blame the “provocation” on Moscow as “insane” propaganda.

Russia’s defence ministry said there would be a harsh response to any attack on the Kursk power plant, which remains under its control, the Interfax news agency reported. It gave no evidence for its accusation against Ukraine, but said a large surrounding area could be contaminated by an attack.

“We are seeing another surge in insane Russian propaganda about alleged Ukrainian plans to use ‘dirty bombs’ or attack nuclear plants. We officially refute these false claims,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi wrote on X.

“Ukraine has no intention or ability to take any such actions.”

Two Italian journalists who angered Moscow with a TV report from Ukrainian-held parts of Russia‘s Kursk region will return to Italy, state broadcaster RAI said on Saturday.

Russia‘s Foreign Ministry summoned Italy’s ambassador on Friday over what it called “illegal border crossing” by a RAI crew.

“The company decided to make journalist Stefania Battistini and cameraman Simone Traini return temporarily to Italy, solely to ensure personal safety and security,” RAI said.

Baza, a Telegram channel close to Russian law enforcement, had said the interior ministry was planning to open a criminal cases against the two journalists.

A four-person RAI crew, working under Ukrainian military escort, produced the first foreign media report from the war-damaged Russian town of Sudzha, taken last week during Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk.

The two reporters are scheduled to fly back to the northern Italian city of Milan on Sunday.

British reporters from Sky News and CNN have also been into occupied Russia since then, reporting from the town of Sudzha.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said that Russia is restricting access to information for people in Russia in an attempt to limit criticism of the invasion of Ukraine.

In a post on the social media platform X, the MoD said on Saturday: “Russia is restricting access to information to limit criticism of its destructive invasion of Ukraine. Communications channels are being pulled away as the Kremlin tightens its grip on free expression.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that “dozens of Russian assaults” have been recorded in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

He added: “However, our warriors and units are doing everything possible to destroy the occupiers and repel their assaults. The situation remains under control.”

In a statement on social media platform X, Mr Zelensky added that he was “working on new support packages for our country from our partners”. Ukraine has been pushing its allies to allow use of Storm Shadow long-range missiles against Russia.

Mr Zelensky continued: “The key focus is on limiting Russia’s offensive potential and ensuring our long-range capabilities. We are preparing the respective instructions for Ukrainian diplomats.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that his forces were “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region on Saturday.

Kyiv mounted a major ground offensive into the region on 6 August. In a post on Telegram, reported by AFP, Mr Zelensky said that Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrsky “reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of stabilised territory”.

“As of this morning, we have replenished the exchange fund for our country,” Mr Zelensky said, referring to Russian soldiers Ukraine has captured to be used in future prisoner swaps.

“I thank all the soldiers and commanders who are taking Russian soldiers prisoner and thus bringing the release of our soldiers and civilians held by Russia closer.”

He added that the situation on the Eastern front near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk was “under control”, after it was reported that Russia was making advances in these areas.

“[There were] dozens of Russian assaults on our positions over the last day. But our soldiers and units are doing everything to destroy the occupier and repel the attacks,” Mr Zelensky said.