Russia-Ukraine war: Nuclear watchdog urges restraint after Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant attack – as it happened (2024)

• UN Nuclear watchdog urges restraint after Ukraine attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Sunday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed on Sunday by authorities at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that a drone detonated on site today. “Such detonation is consistent with IAEA observations,” the nuclear watchdog said in a post on a social media. IAEA director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, also said of the attack, “I urge to refrain from actions that … jeopardise nuclear safety.”

  Earlier, the administration reported an Ukrainian strike on the dome of the plant’s sixth power unit that caused no damage, and an attack that damaged a truck parked near the station’s canteen, according to Russian state news agency TASS reports.

• Russia has been accused of systematically using illegal chemical gas attacks against Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian troops claimed that they have been subjected to “almost daily” attacks from small drones dropping teargas and other chemicals. The use of such substances, which is known as CS, is banned during wartime under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

• Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will make an official visit to China to discuss war in Ukraine. Talks scheduled on Monday and Tuesday between Russia and China will consist of bilateral cooperation as well as “hot topics”, such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific, the Russian foreign ministry has said. On Saturday, the US warned allies that China has provided geospatial intelligence to Moscow in its war against Ukraine. According to reports, China has provided Russia with satellite imagery for military purposes, as well as microelectronics and machine tools for tanks.

• Three civilians were killed in a Russian attack on the frontline village of Guliaipole, in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, according to reports from the regional government. The Guardian could not independently verify these claims.

• One civilian was killed and four others were injured after Ukrainian drones were intercepted in Belgorod. A woman was killed and four more people were wounded after air defences downed Ukrainian drones on the approach to Russia’s Belgorod city, according to a statement from the local governor posted on Telegram.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Kyiv will lose the war against Russia if the US congress does not approve military aid to battle Moscow’s invasion. Republicans in Congress have been blocking tens of billions of dollars in military assistance for Kyiv for months.

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• The Russian government has declared a federal emergency over record floods in the Orenburg region. The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, forced over 4,000 people to evacuate, and has flooded nearly 6,300 houses so far, according to state media. Flooding in two more nearby regions has been deemed “inevitable” by the Kremlin. Russian authorities have opened a criminal case for “negligence and violation of construction safety rules” over the burst dam. The Orenburg regional governor said specialists assessed that the dam was built “for a different weight” and that the level of rainfall was “exceptional”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Kyiv will lose the war against Russia if the US congress does not approve military aid to battle Moscow’s invasion.

Republicans in Congress have been blocking tens of billions of dollars in military assistance for Kyiv for months.

“It is necessary to specifically tell Congress that if Congress does not help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war,” Zelensky said during a video meeting of Kyiv-organised fundraising platform United24.

Zelensky said it would be “difficult” for Ukraine to “stay” without the aid. He said that “if Ukraine loses the war, other states will be attacked.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dragged on for more than two years.

A woman was killed on Sunday when shrapnel from a downed Ukrainian drone hit a car travelling in Russia’s Belgorod region, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

In a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app, Gladkov said that four more people, including two children, had been wounded after air defences downed four Ukrainian drones on the approach to Belgorod city.

The Guardian is unable to independently verify the reports.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed on Sunday by authorities at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that a drone detonated on site today.

“IAEA experts have been informed by ZNPP that a drone detonated on site today. Such detonation is consistent with IAEA observations,” the nuclear watchdog said in a post on a social media.

IAEA director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said of the attack, “I urge to refrain from actions that … jeopardise nuclear safety.”

Ukraine attacked the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Sunday, including a strike on the dome of the plant’s sixth power unit that caused no damage, the plant’s Russian-installed administration said in a statement.

Earlier, the administration reported a drone attack that damaged a truck parked near the station’s canteen, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the plant authorities.

The Guardian is unable to verify the reports.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, has been controlled by Russia since March 2022, when its forces took much of southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. The plant remains close to the frontlines, and both Ukraine and Russia have regularly accused the other of shelling the plant, and risking a possible nuclear disaster.

More updates to come …

Flooding in two more Russian regions deemed “inevitable” by the Kremlin on Sunday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said that flooding in Russia’s Kurgan and Tyumen was “inevitable”, amid major floods in the Ural Mountain Orenburg region, state news agency TASS reported.

TASS cited Peskov as saying that President Vladimir Putin had held phone calls with the governors of both regions.

Ukrainian drones attacked the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Sunday, damaging a truck parked near the station’s canteen, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the plant authorities.

Russia has been accused of systematically using illegal chemical gas attacks against Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukrainian troops claimed that they have been subjected to regular attacks from small drones dropping teargas and other chemicals.

The use of such substances, which is known as CS, is banned during wartime under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Read more about these “almost daily” attacks here:

Russia’s government has declared on Sunday flood-hit areas in the Orenburg region a federal emergency, state media reported.

The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, forced over 4,000 people, including 885 children, to evacuate, the regional government said. State news agency Tass said that a further 2,000 homes were flooded, bringing the total to nearly 6,300 in the region.

Russian authorities have opened a criminal case for “negligence and violation of construction safety rules” over the burst dam, which was built in 2014. But the Orenburg regional governor, Denis Pasler, said specialists assessed that the dam was built “for a different weight” and that the level of rainfall was “exceptional”.

Officials in Orsk reported Sunday that four people had died, but said their deaths were unrelated to the flooding.

We have had some more information come through about Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to China on Monday and Tuesday.

Talks between Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who extended the invitation to the Russian minister, will consist of bilateral cooperation as well as “hot topics”, such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific, the Russian foreign ministry said.

On Saturday, the US warned allies that China has provided geospatial intelligence to Moscow in its war against Ukraine. According to reports, China has provided Russia with satellite imagery for military purposes, as well as microelectronics and machine tools for tanks.

China’s foreign ministry has not responded to a request for comment during a holiday weekend.

Reuters reported last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to China in May for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in what might be the Kremlin chief’s first overseas trip of his new presidential term.

Flooding in Russia’s Orenburg remains “critical”.

The mayor of the Russian city of Orenburg said on Sunday that the situation around flooding in the city remained “critical”, and that water levels would continue to rise in the coming days, Reuters reports.

Russia said on Saturday that it had evacuated more than 4,000 people in the Orenburg region, which lies near the Kazakhstan border, due to flooding after a dam burst.

Orsk oil refinery, located in Orenburg, also suspended work on Sunday, Russian news agency cited the plant’s press service as saying. They reported that the suspension of operations was aimed at avoiding ecological risks.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will make an official visit to China, China’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told journalists in Guangzhou, “We’ve been clear with China that we see Russia as gaining support from goods that China, Chinese firms are supplying to Russia.”

“Neither of us want this to be an issue with our bilateral relationship. So we’re working together,” she added.

Sergei Lavrov is expected to visit China on Monday and Tuesday.

Three civilians were killed in a Russian attack on the frontline village of Guliaipole, in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, on Sunday morning, the local governor has said.

“Two men and a woman died under the rubble of their own house, which was hit by a Russian shell,” Ivan Fedorov said on the Telegram messaging app. Fedorov said one more person was injured.

The Guardian could not independently verify the report.

Welcome to our continuing live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here’s an overview of the latest news on day 774 to bring you up to speed.

Ukraine’s forces destroyed 17 attack drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday.

“At night the Russian occupiers attacked Ukraine once again, using 17 attack drones. The Ukrainian air defence forces destroyed all of them,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on Facebook.

Earlier, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Ukraine could run out of air defence missiles if Russia keeps up its intense long-range bombing campaign.

More on that story shortly. In other key developments:

• Zelenskiy also said on Saturday that he hoped that he and Swiss president Viola Amherd would set a date within days for a world peace summit in Switzerland with 80 to 100 countries. Russia has said such a meeting would be pointless if it did not participate. Kyiv has previously proposed a world peace summit but has said Russia would not be invited.

• A close ally of populist prime minister Robert Fico has defeated a pro-western career diplomat to become Slovakia’s new president. Critics worry Slovakia under Fico will abandon its pro-western course and follow the direction of Hungary under populist prime minister Viktor Orbán. Thousands have repeatedly taken to the streets across Slovakia recently to rally against Fico’s pro-Russian and other policies.

• Two Russian missile and drone strikes, one in the early hours of Saturday and a second in the afternoon, killed eight people and wounded at least 10 more people in northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, national emergency services and the city’s mayor said on Saturday. Igor Terekhov also said in Telegram post that the attack had targeted Shevchenkivskyi, a northern area of the city, Agence France-Presse reports. Terekhov said Iranian-made drones had carried out the attack, hitting at least nine high-rise buildings, three dormitories and a petrol station.

• Oleg Synegubov, the region’s governor, said earlier that two men were killed in Shevchenkivskyi. Police confirmed the deaths and said a further eight people were hospitalised “with blast injuries and shrapnel wounds”. Police added that there were no casualties in a separate attack on Mala Danylivka, a village on Kharkiv’s north-west outskirts.

• In the eastern region of Donetsk, artillery shelling killed four people in the village of Kurakhivka including a 38-year-old woman and her 16-year-old daughter, and a 25-year-old man in the village of Krasnohorivka was killed, local officials said.

• Russia on Saturday condemned as a provocation a drone attack on a military facility of pro-Russian separatists in Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region and called for an investigation. An explosive drone hit a facility belonging to the separatist authority’s defence ministry six km (four miles) from the border with Ukraine, the region’s security ministry said on Friday.

• Ukrainian forces are still in control of the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine despite attempts by Russian troops to break through their defences, commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said. Russia’s RIA news agency on Friday cited an official as saying Russian forces had entered the suburbs of the town, which Moscow sees as an important staging point for Kyiv’s troops. Ukrainian military said the report was untrue, Reuters reported. “Chasiv Yar remains under our control, and all enemy attempts to break through to the settlement have failed,” Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday.

• On the ground in Ukraine, Russian forces were advancing, and pushing back against them was “difficult”, said Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s armed forces. Syrskyi said the situation in the Bakhmut area in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region was particularly challenging, Reuters reported. He said Russian forces are carrying out offensive operations day and night, using assault groups with the support of armoured vehicles, as well as assaults on foot.

• Tajikistan’s foreign ministry on Saturday rejected a claim by a top Russian security official that Ukraine’s embassy in the Tajik capital was recruiting mercenaries to fight against Russia. “We note that this assertion by the Russian official has no basis to it,” Russian news agencies quoted Tajik foreign ministry spokesperson Shokhin Samadi as saying.