Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukraine and Russia accused each other on Friday of risking nuclear disaster by shelling Europe's largest nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces in a region expected to become one of the next big front lines of the war.


Reuters | Kyiv | Updated: 13-08-2022 00:38 IST | Created: 13-08-2022 00:31 IST
Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now
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Ukraine and Russia accused each other on Friday of risking nuclear disaster by shelling Europe's largest nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces in a region expected to become one of the next big front lines of the war. ECONOMY

* Securing a new $5 billion loan from the IMF would help assure Ukraine's other creditors that the war-torn country's macroeconomic situation was under control, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief economic adviser told Reuters. * A European bank has agreed to process a payment for the transit of Russian oil through Ukraine, Slovak refiner Slovnaft and another source familiar with the matter said, removing the cause of a stoppage of oil supplies to central Europe last week.

* The first Ukrainian wheat to be exported under a U.N.-brokered deal was on one of two ships to leave Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Friday, Turkey's defence ministry said. Cargoes on more than a dozen other ships departing over the past two weeks were mostly corn as well as grain for animal feed and fuel. FIGHTING

* Ukraine's military said its artillery hit a Russian ammunition depot near a key bridge in the south and added it now had the ability to strike nearly all of Moscow's supply lines in the occupied region. There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities on the report of the attack in Kherson province, or the purported reach of Ukraine's firepower. Reuters could not confirm the reports independently. * Three civilians, including a boy, were wounded in overnight shelling of Marhanets, a town opposite the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said in the latest in a string of similar reports.

* Ukraine's General Staff on Friday reported widespread shelling and air attacks by Russian forces on scores of towns and military bases, especially in the east where Russia is trying to expand territory held on behalf of separatist proxies. * Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the eastern Donetsk region, said on Telegram seven civilians had been killed and 14 wounded in the past 24 hours.

* Ukraine's security agencies issued a joint statement calling for the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to send representatives to locations where Russia is holding Ukrainian POWs. * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told officials to stop talking to reporters about Kyiv's military tactics against Russia, saying late on Thursday that such remarks were "frankly irresponsible". QUOTE

"There's a war going on, and we're talking about nuclear power plant in the middle of a battlefield," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Thursday about the prospect for an inspection by the International Atomic Energy agency. "I think we can think of at least two or three pages' worth of hurdles."

(Compiled by Philippa Fletcher and Alex Richardson)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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