Russia-Ukraine war live news: Zelenskiy warns Russian troops in nuclear plant; Kherson bridges likely out of use as it happened – The Guardian

Key events

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Here is a summary of todays events:

Ukraine has said Russian soldiers who shoot at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant or use it as a base to shoot from would become a special target.

The oil giant Saudi Aramco has unveiled record profits of $48.4bn in the second quarter of 2022, after Russias war in Ukraine and a post-pandemic surge in demand caused crude prices to skyrocket.

Pope Francis said the war in Ukraine had diverted attention from the problem of world hunger and called for urgent food aid to prevent looming famine in Somalia.

The Ukrainian armys Operational Command South said the Russian bombardment of populated areas in the Dnipropetrovsk region continued overnight.

The chairman of Germanys conservative CDU party and opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, said he could not imagine Germany playing a mediating role in the Russian war against Ukraine.

Countries including Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic have called for the EU to limit or block short-term Schengen visas for Russian citizens, in protest at their countrys invasion of Ukraine. Poland is also considering restrictions for Russian tourist visas.

Ukraine has said Russian troops who crossed the Dnipro River during their offensive in the southern Kherson region were facing growing difficulties after strategic bridges were damaged, Reuters reports.

The UK Ministry of Defences update said Russia had probably prioritised reorganising its forces over the past week to reinforce southern Ukraine, but that in the Donbas region in the east, Russian-backed forces had continued to attempt attacks on the north of Donetsk city.

Hungary says Russia has started delivering additional gas to the country after a July visit to Moscow by its foreign minister.

Two more ships carrying grain left Ukraines Black Sea ports on Saturday, Turkeys defence ministry said, bringing the number of vessels to have departed the country to 16 since a UN- and Turkey-brokered deal was agreed in late July, aimed partly at easing a global food crisis.

The Razoni, the first ship to depart Ukraine two weeks ago since grain exports from the countrys Black Sea ports resumed under a UN-brokered deal, was approaching the Syrian port of Tartus on Sunday after the cargo was refused by its original Lebanese buyer, two shipping sources told Reuters.

People in the eastern Ukrainian town of Rubizhne have started exhuming bodies hastily buried in courtyards at the height of battle, to lay them to rest with dignity.

The US has expressed concern to India that it was used earlier this year to break economic sanctions imposed on Russia during a high-seas transfer of fuel made from Russian crude, according to a local central banker.

Updated at 11.58EDT

The chairman of Germanys conservative CDU party and opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, cannot imagine Germany playing a mediating role in the Russian war against Ukraine.

Regardless of who would be in charge, he said, the Federal Republic of Germany has no mediating role in this conflict.

He told the German Press Agency: We stand together with Europe on the side of Ukraine and are therefore not neutral in this conflict. Merz had been asked if he could imagine that former chancellor Angela Merkel, for example, could intervene to bring the war to an end.

The CDU leader accused Germanys coalition government of prolonging the war through its hesitant action in supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine.

It still applies that the Federal Republic of Germany could have done more earlier. The government should have quickly done what the German Bundestag decided on 28 April, namely to deliver heavy equipment on a larger scale, said Merz.

Even now, he stressed, not everything that Germany could contribute was being delivered.

In this respect, we are still not helping Ukraine to the extent that is necessary. And that is prolonging this brutal war, which is now becoming a gruelling war of attrition with hundreds of victims every day, Merz said.

The Ukrainian armys Operational Command South said on Sunday that the Russian bombardment of populated areas in the Dnipropetrovsk region continued overnight.

The Russian occupiers again shelled two districts - Nikopol and Kryvorizky, the military unit said in a Facebook post.

As a result of the shelling, a school, residential buildings and high-rise buildings, shops and cafes were damaged, the statement added, including gas pipelines and power lines, leaving reportedly almost a thousand subscribers without power supply.

In the Marhanets settlement, the unit said, a 69-year-old man was injured and had to have a partial amputation of his right arm, and remained in hospital on Sunday morning.

Russia, in a daily briefing, said it had taken control of Udy village in the eastern Kharkiv region.

The Guardian could not independently verify these reports.

Updated at 11.07EDT

Updated at 09.54EDT

Ukraine on Sunday said Russian troops who had crossed the Dnipro River during their offensive in the southern Kherson region were facing growing difficulties after strategic bridges were damaged, Reuters reports.

Moscows forces seized the city of Kherson on the Dnipro early in their invasion of Ukraine, the only regional capital they have conquered so far.

Their westward offensive in the region has made some progress, but the three bridges they control in the area - two for road traffic and another carrying a railway have been bombarded repeatedly in recent weeks.

The most important crossing is the Antonivskiy bridge in Khersons suburbs, which has been targeted by missiles since late July.

Sergiy Khlan, a regional lawmaker, told Ukrainian television that the only ways for Russian soldiers to cross the river were pontoons near the Antonivskiy bridge that cannot totally meet their needs.

Russia was moving its command centres to the left bank of the river, knowing that it would not be able to evacuate them in time if fighting escalated, he added.

But Khlan said the 20,000 Russian troops on the right bank could still cross the bridges on foot for now.

The Nova Kakhovka bridge, about 30 miles to the north-east of Antonivskiy bridge, was targeted this week.

Khlan on Saturday said Ukrainian forces struck the bridge, preventing the Russians from moving ammunition, equipment and food across it to resupply their troops.

A briefing by Britains defence ministry said the two road bridges leading to Russian-controlled territory on the west bank of the Dnipro were probably out of use.

Updated at 09.29EDT

Pope Francis said on Sunday that the war in Ukraine had diverted attention from the problem of world hunger and called for urgent food aid to prevent looming famine in Somalia.

The people of this region, who already live in very precarious conditions, are now in mortal danger because of drought, he said at his weekly address in St. Peters Square, referring to the Horn of Africa.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said this month that it could officially declare famine in eight regions of Somalia next month if livestock continue to die, key commodity prices rise further and humanitarian assistance fails to reach the most vulnerable.

Francis told pilgrims and tourists in the square that he wanted to draw attention to the grave humanitarian crisis that has hit Somalia and some areas of bordering countries.

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said last week that about a million people have been internally displaced in Somalia since January, Reuters reports.

The country is one of the worlds most susceptible to climate vulnerability.

I hope that international solidarity can respond efficiently to this emergency, Francis said.

Unfortunately the war [in Ukraine] has distracted attention and resources but these are the aims that call for the utmost commitment - the fight against hunger, health care, education, he said.

Updated at 08.58EDT

The Razoni, the first ship to depart Ukraine two weeks ago since grain exports from the countrys Black Sea ports resumed under a UN-brokered deal, was approaching the Syrian port of Tartus on Sunday after the cargo was refused by its original Lebanese buyer, two shipping sources told Reuters.

Ukraine cut off diplomatic ties with Syria in June after Damascus recognised the independence of the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Earlier this week the ship was reported to have docked in Turkey, and was supposed to unload 1,500 tonnes of its 26,527 tonnes of corn in the country, before proceeding to Egypt with the rest of its cargo.

Updated at 07.48EDT

Oil giant Saudi Aramco on Sunday unveiled record profits of $48.4bn in the second quarter of 2022, after Russias war in Ukraine and a post-pandemic surge in demand caused crude prices to skyrocket.

The worlds biggest oil producer saw its net profits surge by 90% year-on-year, and posted its second straight quarterly record in strong market conditions - a rise of 22.7% from from the first quarter of 2022, for which the company had announced a net income of $39.5bn.

Almost entirely state-owned Aramco is just the latest oil giant to rake in eye-watering sums after ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni also revealed multi-billion-dollar profits in the second quarter, Reuters reports.

While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events during the first half of this year support our view that ongoing investment in our industry is essential, said Aramco president and CEO Amin H Nasser.

In fact, we expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, he added.

Half-year profits were $87.9bn, up from $47.2bn for the same period of 2021.

Aramco will pay an $18.8bn dividend in Q3, the same as it paid in Q2. It continues to work on increasing crude oil maximum sustainable capacity from 12 million barrels per day to 13 million by 2027, its earnings announcement said.

Aramco shares are up 25% this year.

The company is the crown jewel and leading source of income for the conservative kingdom, and temporarily overtook Apple as the worlds most valuable company in March.

It is now in second place with a market valuation of $2.4tn.

Updated at 07.49EDT

People in the eastern Ukrainian town of Rubizhne have started exhuming bodies that were hastily buried in courtyards at the height of battle, anxious to be able to lay them to rest with dignity.

Rubizhne is part of the Luhansk region of Ukraine where Russian forces established full control in early July, more than four months after president Vladimir Putin launched what he called his special military operation in Ukraine.

Men with spades removed soil on Friday outside a damaged apartment block in the town of 50,000 people.

Lilia Ai-Talatini, 48, watched as the workers pulled out a blanket covering her mother, who had been quickly interred after attacks that started in March and divided the town in two, Reuters reports.

Ai-Talatini said the fighting at that time had prevented her for 10 days from reaching her parents apartment.

She said her mother was unwell, and when she died, she and her husband had no spades and therefore, as shells flew, had to drag the corpse to an open trench in the ground, burying her in what she described as inhuman conditions.

Now she is going to the cemetery, we have a plot there, she said.

The breakaway Russian-backed Luhansk Peoples Republic (LPR), one of Moscows proxies in eastern Ukraine, is coordinating the search for bodies.

Anna Sorokina, an LPR official, said a team had been working in Rubizhne for 10 days and exhumed 104 sets of remains.

Its clear that shrapnel wounds predominate but there are also bullet wounds, she said, estimating there were a total of 500 unofficial graves in the city.

Boris Kovalyov, 44, a forensic expert from the southern Russian region of Rostov, said examples of genetic material would be stored to help identify unknown corpses.

Updated at 06.51EDT

The US has expressed concern to India that it was used earlier this year to break economic sanctions imposed on Russia during a high-seas transfer of fuel made from Russian crude, according to a local central banker.

A Russian tanker on the open sea reportedly handed over oil to an Indian ship, which was then processed in India and finally exported to the United States, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Michael Patra, said on Saturday at a financial conference in the state of Odisha.

You know there are sanctions against people who buy Russian oil. Heres what we were told by the US Treasury Department, Patra told his state and financial industry audience.

An Indian ship hit upon a Russian tanker in the open sea, picked up oil, called at a port in the state of Gujarat. The oil was in processed at this port and turned into a distillate used in the manufacture of single-use plastic, the central banker said.

The Indian ship took over the freight again, left the port and was only informed about its destination, New York, on the open sea.

Thats how war works, Patra summed up. He did not name the ship. The US Embassy did not comment, Reuters reported.

Countries including Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic have called for the EU to limit or block short-term Schengen visas for Russian citizens, in protest at their countrys invasion of Ukraine.

Now, Poland is now also considering restrictions for Russian tourist visas.

Poland is working on developing a concept that will make it possible not to issue visas to Russians, deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk told the PAP news agency on Sunday, adding that a decision would be made in the coming weeks.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected calls for visa restrictions, saying a blanket ban on visas for Russians was hard to imagine, my colleagues Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer report.

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the measure at an informal meeting this month, although universal approval from the blocs 27 members would be needed to implement any such policy.

Two more ships carrying grain left Ukraines Black Sea ports on Saturday, Turkeys defence ministry said, bringing the number of vessels to depart the country to 16 since a UN- and Turkey-brokered deal was agreed in late July, aimed partly at easing a global food crisis.

Ukraines infrastructure ministry said on Saturday that 16 ships carrying 450,000 tonnes of agricultural products had departed from Ukrainian sea ports since early August under the deal, which ensured safe passage for vessels, Reuters reports.

The UN-chartered ship MV Brave Commander will depart Ukraine for Africa in coming days after it finishes loading more than 23,0000 tons of wheat in the port of Pivdennyi, a UN official said.

The ship, bound for Ethiopia, will be the first humanitarian food aid cargo to Africa since the start of the war, amid fears that the loss of Ukrainian grain supplies could lead to outbreaks of famine.

The blockage of Ukrainian ports has trapped tens of millions of grain in the country.

Zelenskiy said that in less than two weeks, Ukraine had managed to export the same amount of grain from three ports as it had done by road for all of July.

Ukraine hopes to increase its maritime exports to over 3 million tonnes of grain and other farm products per month in the near future.

Updated at 06.52EDT

Updated at 06.53EDT

In July, the Eastern Finnish city of Imatra began playing the Ukrainian national anthem at a prominent tourist site every evening, to protest the Russian invasion.

Excerpt from:

Russia-Ukraine war live news: Zelenskiy warns Russian troops in nuclear plant; Kherson bridges likely out of use as it happened - The Guardian