The UN nuclear chief warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control” and issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident.

A new round of US sanctions targeting Russian elites includes a woman named in news reports as Vladimir Putin’s longtime romantic partner.

The first shipment of grain to leave Ukraine under a deal to ease Russia’s naval blockade was expected in Istanbul “after midnight,” as Kyiv yesterday said it had begun mandatory evacuations from the war-torn Donetsk region.

The Russian Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Ukraine’s Azov Regiment a terrorist organisation banned in Russia, a designation that fuels the Kremlin’s narrative of the war in Ukraine and that may expose Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Moscow to terrorism charges.

A ship carrying grain left the Ukrainian port of Odesa for Lebanon yesterday under a safe passage agreement, Ukrainian and Turkish officials said, the first departure since the Russian invasion blocked shipping through the Black Sea five months ago.

For the first time since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, a Russian ship carrying machineries for Rooppur nuclear power plant arrived at the Mongla deep sea port today (August 1, 2022).

Russian missiles pounded the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv on Sunday, killing the owner of a major grain exporter, while a drone strike on Russia's Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol was launched from within the city in a "terrorist attack," a Russian lawmaker said.

Ukraine yesterday said the “strongest” shelling by Moscow so far of the southern city Mykolaiv killed a grain tycoon, as Russia claimed an attack from a drone wounded six personnel at the headquarters of its Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea.

Russia on Sunday invited United Nations and Red Cross experts to probe the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners held by Moscow-backed separatists, while Ukraine's president ordered the evacuation of residents in the eastern region of Donetsk.

Russian energy giant Gazprom yesterday suspended gas supplies to Latvia, a day after a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war was bombed leaving scores dead.

Dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war appeared to have been killed when a prison building was destroyed in a missile strike yesterday, with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of carrying out the attack.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday (July 28) he was hopeful that the first shipment of grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port could take place as early as Friday, but "crucial" details for the safe passage of vessels are still being worked out.

Ukraine stepped up its drive to retake the Russian-controlled south of the country by trying to bomb and isolate Russian troops in hard-to-resupply areas, but warned that Moscow was redeploying its forces to defend the territory.

Ukraine said yesterday it had restarted operations at its blockaded Black Sea ports as it moved closer to resuming grain exports with the opening of a coordination centre to oversee a UN-backed deal.

Shipping companies are not rushing to export millions of tons of trapped grain out of Ukraine, despite a breakthrough deal to provide safe corridors through the Black Sea. That is because explosive mines are drifting in the waters, ship owners are assessing the risks and many still have questions over how the deal will unfold.

Ukraine said yesterday Russian forces had launched multiple missile strikes at targets on the Black Sea coast near the southern port city of Odessa and in Mykolaiv.

Russia yesterday brushed aside Western and Ukrainian alarm that a missile strike by its forces on Ukraine’s port of Odessa could derail a United Nations-brokered deal aimed at easing global food shortages by resuming grain exports from the Black Sea region.

Next year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be staged in Britain, organizers announced Monday, after concluding it is too risky to hold the much-loved pop extravaganza in the designated host country, Ukraine.

In a village in northern Ukraine that was devastated by Russian occupation only months ago, a techno party is in full swing.

The missile’s impact flung the young woman against the fence so hard it splintered. Her mother found her dying on the bench beneath the pear tree where she’d enjoyed the afternoon. By the time her father arrived, she was gone.