Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature
Ukraine is preparing for intensified attacks
Ukraine is bracing for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday. The country’s military warned that Russia had put five warships and submarines carrying cruise missiles into the Black Sea and that Moscow was deploying air defense systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days since Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that “Russia may try to do something particularly bad, something particularly cruel” this week as the country celebrates the 31st anniversary of its independence.
Zelensky warns Moscow against trial of Ukrainian soldiers
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russia not to try Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of Mariupol, saying it would jeopardize the possibility of negotiations. In his latest video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that if the “absurd and disgusting trial” of Ukrainian soldiers takes place in Mariupol, the possibility of talks with Russia will be eliminated. If this abominable tribunal takes place, if our people are brought into these environments in violation of all agreements, all international rules, there will be abuse. That will be the line beyond which negotiations are not possible.”
Rock bombing in Nikopolis near a nuclear plant
Artillery fire rained down on the Ukrainian city of Nikopol, near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Nikopoli was bombed on five separate occasions, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said in a Telegram update. A woman walks past a shop hit by artillery shells in the Ukrainian city of Nikopol, near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Photo: Christopher Cherry/The Guardian He said 25 artillery shells hit the city, setting fire to industrial facilities and cutting power to 3,000 people. The Russians fired 25 rounds of barrel artillery at Nicopolis. The bombing caused a serious fire in the enterprise – the fire destroyed the equipment. In the city, a school was mutilated, a house was destroyed and two dozen others were damaged. Gas furnaces and power lines are down. More than 3,000 citizens of Nikopolis are without electricity. Emergency teams are working.”
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments for the next while. Whether you followed our coverage overnight or just dropped in, here are the latest lines. Repeated shelling rocked the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, which is near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, its governor said. Zelensky warned Moscow against going ahead with the trial of captured Ukrainian soldiers in his latest national speech. In Ukraine it is 7.30. Here’s everything you might have missed:
Ukraine is bracing for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday. The country’s military warned that Russia had deployed five warships and submarines carrying cruise missiles in the Black Sea and that Moscow was deploying air defense systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days since Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned that “Russia may try to do something particularly bad, something particularly vicious” this week as the country marks the 31st anniversary of its independence.
Artillery fire rained down on the Ukrainian city of Nikopol, near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Nikopoli was bombed on five separate occasions, regional governor Valentin Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. He said 25 artillery shells hit the city, setting fire to industrial facilities and cutting power to 3,000 people.
Russian missiles hit targets near Odessa, Ukrainian officials said. Five Russian Kalibr cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea into the region, the regional command’s spokesman said on Monday, citing information from the southern military command. Two were shot down by Ukrainian air defense and three hit agricultural targets, but there were no casualties. Russia said on Sunday that the missiles destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made Himars rockets, while Kyiv said a granary was hit.
The daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin was killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night. Darya Dugina, whose father is Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm. time (1930 BST), according to the researchers.
A former member of the Russian Duma claimed that Russian partisans were allegedly behind the car bomb attack. Ilya Ponomarev, who was expelled for anti-Kremlin activities, claimed the blast was the work of the National Republican Army, which he claimed was an underground group working in Russia dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime. “This attack opens a new page in Russian resistance to Putinism,” he said.
Zelensky warned Russia not to try Ukrainian soldiers captured during the Mariupol siege. “If this abominable court is made, if our people are brought into these environments in violation of all agreements, all international rules, there will be abuse,” he said in a speech on Sunday afternoon. “That will be the line beyond which negotiations are not possible.”
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and the US have called for military restraint around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. In a phone call, the four leaders also called for a “quick visit” to the nuclear facility by independent inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman.
Four more ships carrying food have left Ukrainian ports, Turkey’s defense ministry said, bringing the total number of ships to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports under a UN-brokered grain export deal to 31.
