As it happened: Russia using nuclear plant like a shield - Ukrainian energy head

An expert from Imperial College, London, has been giving some reassurance about the danger of a nuclear accident at the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.

Dr Mark Wenman says it is "a relatively modern and robust reactor design," unlike the reactor in Chernobyl, where an explosion and fire in 1986 threw clouds of radioactive material over the surrounding area.

"I do not believe there would be a high probability of a breach of the containment building, even if it was accidently struck by an explosive shell and even less likely, the reactor itself could be damaged by such," he said. ‘"This means the radioactive material is well protected.’"

"Although it may seem worrying, and any fighting on a nuclear site would be illegal according to international law, the likelihood of a serious nuclear release is still small."

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The US is to give Ukraine a further $4.5bn (£3.7bn).

That'll bring its total budgetary support, since Russia launched its invasion back in February, to $8.5bn (£7bn).

The package includes $1bn for weapons - including munitions for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles, according to acting Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale.

The World Bank estimates that 55% of Ukrainians will be living in poverty by the end of 2023 as a result of the war - compared with 2.5% at the start of this year.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said the money will help Ukrainian government to maintain infrastructure such as schools and hospitals and to deliver humanitarian supplies.

USAID added that robust safeguards had been put in place to make sure the money is properly used.

Hollywood actor Jessica Chastain was in Ukraine at the weekend.

On Sunday, she visited a children's hospital in Kyiv and delighted the children, from Kherson and Chernihiv, with teddy bear gifts. In return, the children gave her presents - one was a picture drawn by a patient.

The star also heard from staff about the challenges they face while caring for patients in the hospital.

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Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Chastain for her visit during a meeting in Kyiv. She added the people of Ukraine are "very brave and strong".

The UK's Ministry of Defence has been training Ukrainian civilians to be ready for combat in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

According to the British MoD, the UK-led military programmes are preparing Ukrainian soldiers to be ready to fight in the front line.

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A former leading officer in the UK's armed forces thinks Russia is going to “formally annex” as much of the Donbas area of Ukraine as it can on 11 September.

General Sir Richard Barrons, Joint Forces Command from 2013-2016, tells the BBC's World at One programme that Ukraine will need “our will, our money, our industry, and our inventory” to help take back its country.

He says if Ukraine is successful, it could end up pushing into territory that “Russia has declared is Russia”.

And that could see Moscow “reaching for... its small nuclear weapons”.

He says this would involve “quite small” nuclear weapons that would be dangerous within a two mile radius but would not “provoke a nuclear holocaust through an uncontrolled escalation”.

As we've been reporting, both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling Zaporizhzhia's nuclear plant - which is the largest in Europe.

Now, the White House has called on Russia to cease all military operations around nuclear facilities in Ukraine.

Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said "fighting near a nuclear plant is dangerous," and "full control" of nuclear facilities should be returned to Ukraine.

She says the US is continuing to monitor the situation at the facility and radiation sensors have "thankfully" not shown any indications of an increase or abnormal radiation levels.

Jean-Pierre says the US is aware of reports of mistreatment of staff in the plant and, she adds, "we applaud the Ukrainian authorities and operators for their commitment to nuclear safety and security under trying circumstances".

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Earlier today we heard from nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which today spoke of its concern about the safety of the power plant in Zaporizhzhia.

Now the Ukrainian representative to the agency, Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, condemned Russia's accusation that Ukraine shelled the nuclear power plant as a strategy of "disinformation and propaganda".

Speaking in Vienna, Tsymbaliuk called the claim "absolute nonsense".

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Tensions at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have alarmed the world. For days, Ukrainian and Russian officials have blamed each other for attacking the site, although who has done what remains unclear.

It’s hard to independently confirm what’s happening there.

Russian forces captured the complex in early March, although Ukrainian technicians are still operating it.

It’s not clear why Russia would attack a site it already controls. Observers have said it could be a strategy to play on Western fears of a nuclear disaster, and degrade the military support for Ukraine.

Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Enerhoatom, told me the workers are under pressure and in danger, and some had been captured, beaten and tortured.

Again, these are allegations that can’t be independently verified, but will certainly add to the concerns about the conditions at the plant.

Kotin said the Russian plan was to eventually disconnect the plant from Ukraine’s grid and link it to the Russian system, a claim we can’t verify.

Calls are growing for Russia to allow international inspectors to visit the site. For now, though, the plant is safe, Kotin said.

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The war in Ukraine has now been raging for more than five months. Here's a quick recap of where things stand and how we got here:

What's the big picture?

Russia invaded Ukraine in February, but failed in its advance on the capital Kyiv. By April it had pulled back to focus on gaining control of the whole eastern Donbas region, where separatists supported by Moscow have been fighting since 2014.

The war has created a humanitarian crisis - the latest figures from UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, show that over 6.3 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe.

Ukraine is usually the world's fourth-largest grain exporter but disruption to harvests and shipping have caused steep price hikes - in Nigeria, for example, the cost of staples such as pasta and bread has increased by as much as 50%.

Meanwhile, European gas prices are climbing as Russia restricts supplies.

What's happening at Zaporizhzhia?

Russia seized the nuclear plant, the biggest in Europe, in March but kept its Ukrainian employees.

Ukraine said parts of the facility have been "seriously damaged" by Russian military strikes and accused them of "blackmailing the entire world". Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attacks.

The UN's nuclear watchdog has called for an immediate end to any military action in its vicinity, warning of a "very real risk of a nuclear disaster".

Latest fighting on the ground

Ukraine says it is planning a counter-offensive in the Russian-occupied south of the country, and its forces have been shelling a key bridge in the city of Kherson. The Antonivskyi crossing is one of only two points where Russian troops can gain access to territory they have occupied west of the Dnipro river.

In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, it's reported that one person's been killed and another injured in a Russian rocket attack.

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We've been reporting on the situation in Zaporizhzhia, where Ukraine and Russia have both accused each other of shelling the city's nuclear site.

Now let's hear from a Ukrainian nuclear watchdog official about why Russia may want to focus its efforts on the area.

Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Ukraine's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says Russian forces want to cause electricity blackouts in southern Ukraine by shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex. He also calls for an international mission to the plant this month.

"We will use all possible channels of diplomacy to bring the IAEA and UN closer to conducting this mission," Tsymbaliuk tells reporters in Vienna, insisting the visit must happen "no later than the end of this month".

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One of Ukraine’s most influential presidential advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, tells the BBC there are effectively no channels of peace negotiations open between Kyiv and Moscow.

“There are only channels [of negotiations] about exhanging bodies and POWs," he says.

"Russia is a country for whom there is no humane approach to war or to treating civilians in occupied territories. Russia is a different civilisation.

“After six months of this war, we can’t continue believing that it will fulfil any agreements.”

Podolyak has been by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s side since the start of the full-scale invasion and is one of the key figures shaping Ukraine’s position. He says Kyiv will join negotiations with Russia when a realistic starting point is in sight, instead of what he described as a Russian ultimatum where Moscow intends to annex all occupied territories.

Ukraine’s aim, says Podolyak, is restoring state borders as of March 2014, including Russia-annexed occupied Crimea. Otherwise, he says, there won’t be lasting peace.

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You may remember that, in the last few weeks, Turkey and the UN brokered a deal to allow shipments to leave Ukraine.

The country's ports had been blocked since the start of the conflict, and a vessel called the Razoni became the first grain ship to set sail under the new agreement.

The Razoni left Odesa on 1 August and had been bound for the Lebanese port of Tripoli, but over the weekend it ground to a halt and dropped anchor near southern Turkey.

In a tweet, Ukraine's embassy in Beirut said the buyer of its grain cargo has refused to accept the delivery because of delays to the shipment.

The buyer has not been named, but Ukraine's embassy said a new one is being sought and the ship might end up going to another country.

Since the Razoni's departure, five other ships have left Ukraine. One of them, the Turkish-flagged ship Polarnet, has already arrived in the northern Turkish port of Derince and is expected to unload its cargo today.

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Russia's military could be unable to operate the high-tech weapons and communications systems it has been using in Ukraine if the West were to tighten export controls, says a report.

Almost all Moscow's modern military systems depend on Western-made microelectronics, the report says.

Moscow has found ways to bypass sanctions and export controls.

If the loopholes could be closed, says Rusi, the report authors, Russia's military might be permanently degraded.

Researchers for Rusi, the Royal United Services Institute, spent months in Ukraine, examining 27 of Russia's most modern military systems, either captured, brought down or abandoned by Russian troops.

They discovered at least 450 different kinds of unique, foreign-made components, most built in the US but also in other Western countries.

You can read more here.

More now from Prof Claire Corkhill - a nuclear material degradation expert who we've been speaking to, from the University of Sheffield.

Another major risk at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia power plant is the possibility of a nuclear waste storage site getting hit by a missile, which "could lead to a release of radioactivity", Corkhill says.

She says the consequences of this wouldn't be as wide-reaching and severe as a loss of coolant accident, but it could still be extremely dangerous.

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"All it takes is for one missile to hit the wrong area and then it's serious," Corkhill says.

Since Russia seized the plant - the largest in Europe - in March, its Ukrainian employees have been kept there to work.

There have been concerns stress could impact the workers' ability to safely carry out their duties at the nuclear site.

Quote Message: It's not the type of environment you want to be working under duress" from Prof Claire Corkhill

It's not the type of environment you want to be working under duress"

Ukraine and Russia have both accused each other of shelling the plant over the weekend - Ukraine has said attacks damaged three radiation sensors and left a worker injured, leading to a reactor needing to be disconnected from the system.

Corkhill says although it's a "precarious situation" it gives her confidence workers at the plant were able to take actions "in a safe way to stop a serious accident".

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The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Enerhoatom has accused Russian soldiers of turning the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant into a military base, using it to launch attacks against Ukrainian positions.

Petro Kotin tells me the threat to the plant is great, but the site remains safe.

"They [Russian forces] use it [the power plant] like a shield against the Ukrainian forces, because nobody from Ukraine is going to make something.

"The Ukrainian Armed Forces know that these are Ukrainian personnel and this is a Ukrainian plant and there are Ukrainian people [there] so we are not going to kill our people, our staff and damage our infrastructure."

He says 500 Russian soldiers are at the complex, and Russia has positioned rocket launchers in the area of the plant.

For days, Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the site.

Ukraine says two workers have been wounded, and three radiation sensors damaged.

The complex has been under Russian occupation since early March, but Ukrainian technicians still operate it.

Since Russia began its attacks on Ukraine in February, we've seen images of destruction and hardship throughout the country.

Five months later, life for its citizens contrasts significantly from region to region. Here are some recent photos showing how life varies around the country.

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The Moscow-installed head of Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region has signed a decree that will enable a referendum to take place for the region to join the Russian Federation, RIA Novosti news agency reports.

Southern Zaporizhzhia is under Russian control and it is the focus of this next stage of the war as Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant suffers heavy shelling.

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the plant, which has prompted warnings of a "nuclear disaster" from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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We've been speaking to Prof Claire Corkhill - a nuclear material degradation expert at the University of Sheffield.

She says the more missiles fired and mines planted around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the higher the risk of "very serious consequences that would spread radiation".

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the plant over the weekend.

The plant was seized by the Russians early in the war - in March - but kept its Ukrainian employees.

Corkhill calls it a "very high risk situation", and says her biggest concern is if a missile were to hit critical infrastructure.

She says if this happened there would be a chance the water continually pumping around the nuclear reactor's core wouldn't be able to cool it down any more.

Quote Message: The very worst case scenario is a loss of coolant accident - precisely what happened at Fukushima" from Prof Claire Corkhill

The very worst case scenario is a loss of coolant accident - precisely what happened at Fukushima"

This could lead to a meltdown and a series of hydrogen explosions that could release radiation over many kilometres, Corkhill says, adding "this almost happened back in March this year".

However, she says the likelihood of a serious accident is unclear and says the reactors themselves are heavily reinforced - so should be able to withstand a direct hit.

Read about the incident at Fukushima here.

Ukraine is usually the world's fourth-largest grain exporter. It normally produces 42% of the world's sunflower oil, 16% of its maize and 9% of its wheat.

Wheat exports from Russia - the world's largest exporter - are also down.

Western sanctions do not target Russian agriculture, but the Kremlin argues they have hindered exports by hiking insurance rates and affecting payments.

Ships have begun to leave Ukraine carrying grain in recent days, following a deal between the two nations brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.

The first ship to do so left the port of Odesa carrying 26,000 tonnes of corn, bound for Lebanon, becoming the first cargo ship to have been able to leave the nation since February, when Russia began its naval blockade in the Black Sea.

Read more here.

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