MAIN HEADLINES

• A huge blaze has been extinguished at Europe's biggest nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine after Russian forces seized it. Officials said it was now operating normally. 

• No damage was done to the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia plant after a projectile hit a nearby building on the site, UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi said. 

• Ukraine's foreign ministry called on the international community to take decisive action following the attack on the plant, a move the ministry said risked nuclear disaster.

• Russia's Defense Ministry blamed the attack on Ukrainian "saboteurs." 

• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia is using cluster bombs and other weapons that "would be in violation of international law in Ukraine."

• The UN human rights office stated that 331 civilians had been killed and 675 injured in Ukraine, adding that the real toll was likely much higher.

• India urged Ukraine and Russia on Friday to impose a ceasefire in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy to help evacuate hundreds of Indian students trapped there.

• The Kremlin said that what happens next in the negotiations over Ukraine would depend on Kyiv's reaction to this week's talks. Russia has outlined its solution to the conflict but said it had not signed any agreements at this stage.

• The UN Human Rights Council overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning alleged rights violations by Russia in Ukraine and is setting up a commission to investigate them. 

• Russia's communications watchdog has restricted access to several foreign news organizations' websites, including the BBC and Deutsche Welle, for spreading what it says is false information.

• Russia's parliament has passed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally "fake" information about the armed forces. 

• Mariupol remains under Ukrainian control but has been encircled by Russian forces and is subjected to intense strikes, the UK stated.

IN DETAIL 

The nuclear power plant 

No damage was done to reactors at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and there was no release of radioactive material after a military projectile hit a nearby building on the site, UN atomic chief Rafael Grossi said. 

Two members of the station's security staff were injured in the fighting. At a news conference called at short notice, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Grossi showed an overhead shot of the site and the damaged building: a training center close to but separate from the row of reactor units.

"What we understand is that this projectile is a projectile that is coming from the Russian forces. We do not have details about the kind of projectile," Grossi said, adding that the radiation monitoring system at the site was functioning normally.

"We, of course, are fortunate that there was no release of radiation and that the integrity of the reactors in themselves was not compromised," he added.

Russia's Defense Ministry blamed the attack on Ukrainian "saboteurs." 

The IAEA says that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is the first time war has broken out in a country with such an advanced and established nuclear power program. Zaporizhzhia is the biggest of the country's four operational nuclear power plants. 

Grossi suggested meeting Russian and Ukrainian officials at defunct power plant Chernobyl for talks to commit not to do anything to endanger nuclear security in Ukraine.

The talks

The Kremlin told Russians to rally around President Vladimir Putin and said that what happened next in the negotiations over Ukraine would depend on Kyiv's reaction to this week's talks. 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that nothing had been agreed with Ukraine but that Moscow had told Kyiv under what conditions the war would stop. 

Russia invaded Ukraine last week in a move it describes as a "special military operation."

"The talks that took place were a good opportunity to clearly convey to the Ukrainian side our vision of solving this problem. Going forward, everything will depend on the reaction of the Ukrainian side," Peskov said.

He was speaking after the second round of talks held on Thursday, after which the two sides said they had reached an understanding of the need to create humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians.

Russia blocks BBC

Russia cut access to several foreign news organizations' websites, including the BBC and Deutsche Welle, for spreading what it alleged was false information about its war in Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly complained that Western media organizations offer a partial - and often anti-Russian - view of the world while failing to hold their leaders to account for devastating foreign wars such as Iraq.

Russia's communications watchdog said it had blocked the websites of the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle, and other media outlets.

"Access has been restricted to a host of information resources owned by foreigners," the watchdog, known as Roskomnadzor, said in a statement.

"The grounds for restricting access to these information resources on the territory of the Russian Federation was their deliberate and systematic circulation of materials containing false information."

It said the media organizations had spread falsehoods about "the essence of the special military operation in Ukraine, its form, the methods of combat operations (attacks on the population, strikes on civilian infrastructure), the Russian armed forces' losses and civilian victims."

The BBC said it would not be deterred by the Russian curbs.

"Access to accurate, independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia, millions of whom rely on BBC News every week," it said.

"We will continue our efforts to make BBC News available in Russia and across the rest of the world."

The European Union this week banned Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik. Facebook owner Meta, Alphabet's Google, YouTube, and TikTok are already blocking access to RT and Sputnik in the EU.

Twitter has said it would comply with the EU ban.