Pictured: Europe's biggest nuclear power plant in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region occupied by Russian forces./Reuters
TOP HEADLINES
• On Friday evening, Ukraine and Russia accused each other of risking 'a nuclear disaster' by shelling Europe's largest nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia - a region expected to become one of the next big front lines of the war. READ MORE BELOW.
• Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko has accused Russia of blocking access to medicines. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko said Russian authorities have repeatedly blocked efforts to provide state-subsidized drugs to people in occupied cities, towns and villages.
• Russian forces have taken full control of Pisky, a village on the outskirts in Ukraine's Donetsk region, Interfax the Russian defence ministry confirmed.
• Two road bridges to Russian occupied territory in Kherson Oblast out of use, UK says. The two primary road bridges giving access to the pocket of Russian occupied territory on the west bank of the Dnipro in Kherson Oblast are now probably out of use for the purposes of substantial military resupply, British military intelligence said. READ MORE BELOW.
• The first grain shipment from Ukraine has arrived in Italy. Workers unloaded boxes containing 13,000 tonnes of corn from the Rojen ship a day after it arrived in the northern Italian port city of Ravenna after stopping off in Turkey.
• Russia has told the U.S. that diplomatic ties would be badly damaged and could even be broken off if Russia is declared a "state sponsor of terrorism" by the U.S. Senate, TASS cited a top foreign ministry official as saying on Friday.
• Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said for the war to end his country would seek the return of Crimea and the punishment of the Russian leaders who ordered the military action in February, saying on Twitter: "Russia started war against Ukraine in 2014 with Crimea seizure. Obviously, it must end with Crimea liberation and legal punishment of 'special military operation' initiators."
• Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said on Telegram: Russian forces shelling had killed five civilians and wounded 35 in the last 24 hours.
Multiple rockets are launched at a frontline in east Ukraine as Russia's attack on Ukraine continue./Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Reuters
IN DETAIL
ZAPORIZHZHIA PLANT REMAINS UNDER RUSSIAN OCCUPATION
Western countries have called for Moscow to withdraw its troops from the Zaporizhzhia plant, but there has been no sign so far of Russia agreeing to do that.
The plant was captured by Russian forces in early March but is still run by Ukrainian technicians.
The plant dominates the south bank of a vast reservoir on the Dnipro river that cuts across southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces controlling the towns and cities on the opposite bank have come under intense bombardment from the Russian-held side.
Kyiv has said for weeks it is planning a counteroffensive to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighbouring Kherson provinces, the largest part of the territory Russia seized after Feb. 24 and still in Russian hands.
The vital Antonivsky Bridge
UK military intelligence says that in recent days, Russia has only succeeded in making superficial repairs to damaged Antonivsky road bridge.
Even if Russia manages to make significant repairs to the bridges, they will remain a key vulnerability, the UK's Ministry of Defence said.
"Ground resupply for the several thousand Russian troops on the west bank is almost certainly reliant on just two pontoon ferry crossing points," the ministry said in an intelligence update.
With their supply chain constrained, the size of any stockpiles Russia has managed to establish on the west bank is likely to be a key factor in the force's endurance.