Live: Zelensky says situation at Ukraine nuclear plant highly threatening

Issued on: 31/08/2022 – 05:33Modified: 31/08/2022 – 06:18

8:08am: Ukrainian formations pushed back frontline in some places: UK

Ukrainian armoured forces have assaulted Russia’s southern grouping of forces on several axes across the south of the country since Monday, said the British defence ministry.

Ukrainian formations have pushed the Russian forces frontline back some distance in places, exploiting relatively thinly held Russian defences, the ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin. 

5:15am: IAEA convoy sets off towards Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

An International Atomic Energy Agency car convoy set off from Kyiv towards the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday morning, a Reuters witness reported from the scene.

It was unclear when the IAEA mission planned to reach Europe’s biggest nuclear plant which is now controlled by Russian forces and has become one of the focal points in the Ukrainian conflict, with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of undermining its safety.

4:30am: Russia halts gas flows via Nord Stream 1: German entry point data

Russia halted gas supplies via a major pipeline to Europe on Wednesday, intensifying an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and raising the prospects of recession and energy rationing in some of the region’s richest countries.

Flows fell to zero on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany via the Baltic Sea, according to flow data from entry points linking Nord Stream 1 to the German gas network, for maintenance due to last until the early hours of Saturday. 

1:05am: Heavy fighting rages in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied south

Ukraine claimed to have destroyed bridges and ammunition depots and pounded command posts in a surge of fighting in the Russian-occupied south, fueling speculation Tuesday that its long-awaited counteroffensive to try to turn the tide of war is underway. Russia said it inflicted heavy casualties in return.

The clashes took place in Ukraine’s Kherson region, where Moscow’s forces rolled up major gains early in the war.

While independent verification of battlefield action has been difficult, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence report that several Ukrainian brigades had stepped up their artillery fire in front-line sectors across southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities kept the world guessing about their intentions, sidestepping talk of a major counteroffensive over the past couple of days.

The port city of Kherson, with a prewar population of about 300,000, is an important economic hub close to the Black Sea and the first major city to fall to the Russians in the war that began six months ago.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)