Russia-Ukraine war: object found near Nord Stream 2 ‘no safety risk’; Bakhmut battle has ‘badly damaged’ Wagner forces – as it happened (2023)

Russia’s state-owned news agency RIA has reported that the UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi has now arrived at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since very near the beginning of the invasion.

Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, is reporting that there are power outages in some areas of Kyiv and also Odesa which have been caused by weather conditions, rather than enemy action. It writes:

In Kyiv and the region, due to worsening weather conditions, emergency shutdowns of lights were used. Most of them are at the Vyshhorod, Kyiv-Sviatoshyn, and Vasylkiv power stations, DTEK reported. There are also stabilizing power outages in some areas of the capital and the region. In Odesa, seven settlements remain without power due to bad weather.

Russia’s embassy in the US has issued a punchy statement overnight in response to what it says are “statements of a number of US administration officials on support for the creation of a special tribunal against Russia”. It writes on its official Telegram channel:

Such comments are an outright profanity that has nothing to do with justice. The US continues to demonstrate a complete disregard for the norms of international law in favour of its own geopolitical interests. The outrageous and unfounded accusations of alleged aggression, crimes against humanity and other violations are nothing more than an element of the Russophobic campaign organised by Washington as part of the hybrid war unleashed against us.

The US hypocritically and cynically refrains from assessing the criminal acts of the nazis who have settled in Kyiv and have been terrorising civilians for many years. Washington is silent about its own role in the incitement of the Ukrainian conflict. It continues to support [the] Zelenskiy regime through the endless supply of lethal weapons, as a result of which the civilian population continues to die, including children, and kindergartens, schools and hospitals are destroyed.

How may Washington speculate on “responsibility for aggression”, when the international community has not yet recovered from the catastrophic consequences of American adventurist interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, bombing of Yugoslavia and the atrocities in Vietnam?

Sweden’s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Russia’s Stockholm ambassador to complain about a statement on the Russian embassy’s website that said joining Nato made the Nordic nation a “legitimate target”, Reuters reports, citing news agency TT.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, has restated that Russia intends to achieve all the aims of what it terms its “special military operation”. State-owned news agency Tass quotes him saying:

Despite the steadily increasing military assistance to Ukraine from the US and other western states, all the declared goals of the special military operation will certainly be achieved. We will achieve the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, ensure the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation and the security of our population.

Late last year the Russian Federation claimed to annex four regions of Ukraine after organising widely derided “referendums” in the regions which they partially occupied. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, in a move not widely recognised by the international community.

An IAEA spokesperson has confirmed that UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi was on his way to the plant. He said Grossi was in the Zaporizhzhia region, but declined to say where. According to Reuters, he shared a photograph of Grossi standing in body armour by an armoured UN car on the side of a road.

Sweden’s admission to Nato faces challenges as Hungary has grievances about criticism it has received from the Nordic state, and bridging this gap will require significant efforts on both sides, the Hungarian government’s spokesperson tweeted on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

After months of foot-dragging Hungary’s parliament approved a bill on Monday to allow Finland to join Nato but the Swedish bill is still stranded in parliament.

More from that Associated Press interview with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, where Ukraine’s president was unstinting in his criticism of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Zelenskiy said Putin was an “informationally isolated person” who had “lost everything” over the last year of war.

“He doesn’t have allies,” Zelenskiy said, adding that it was clear to him that even China was no longer willing to back Russia. President Xi Jinping has recently attended a state visit in Moscow, and extended an invitation to Putin to visit Beijing.

Zelenskiy suggested that Putin’s announcement shortly after Xi’s visit that he would move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, closer to Nato territory, was meant to deflect from the fact that the Chinese leader’s visit did not go well. Putin said the move was a counter to Britain’s decision to provide more depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine. Belarus has pinned the move as being a response to Nato aggression on its borders.

Despite Putin’s nuclear provocations, and some of the harsh rhetoric that has come from his allies such as Dmitry Medvedev, Zelenskiy told AP he does not believe the Russian leader is prepared to use the bomb.

Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, offers this news round-up of the latest developments on its official Telegram channel:

In the morning, a series of explosions rang out in the temporarily occupied Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia. The lights went out in some areas of the city and settlements.

During the day, the Russian army launched 34 airstrikes and artillery strikes on the de-occupied part of Kherson region, three on Kherson. It struck houses, a hospital and a post office. One person is injured.

(Video) Nord stream Sabotage revelations : Who’s really behind Russian gas pipeline explosions? • FRANCE 24

At night, the Ukrainian military destroyed a Russian Su-24M bomber in the direction of Bakhmut, the air force reported.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Journalists from Associated Press accompanied Volodymyr Zelenskiy on part of his trip this week around frontline regions of Ukraine, and to the border region of Sumy. During that time, Ukraine’s president reiterated requests for more modern weaponry, and also said some elements that had been supplied by the west had not worked.

“We have great decisions about Patriots, but we don’t have them for real,” he said, referring to the US-made air defence system that has been promised.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine needed 20 Patriot batteries to protect against Russian missiles, and even that may not be enough “as no country in the world was attacked with so many ballistic rockets”.

Zelenskiy added that a European nation sent another air defence system to Ukraine, but it didn’t work and they “had to change it again and again”. He did not name the country.

Zelenskiy also reiterated his longstanding request for fighter jets, saying: “We still don’t have anything when it comes to modern warplanes.”

Poland and Slovakia have decided to give Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine, but no western country so far has agreed to provide modern warplanes, through concerns that it might escalate the conflict and provide Ukraine with strike capabilities deep into Russian territory, and that the length of time that it would take to train pilots and provision ground crews makes the delivery in the short-term impractical.