TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation at the Russian occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant remains "very risky" after two of its six reactors were reconnected to the grid following shelling that caused Europe's largest nuclear power plant to be disconnected for the first time. READ MORE BELOW

• More than 18,000 people in the Zaporizhzhia region were left without electricity because of damage caused to power lines, after shelling started a fire near a coal power station which disconnected the reactor complex from the power grid. 

• Russian ex-President Dmitry Medvedev, a central ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Moscow would not stop its military campaign in Ukraine even if Kyiv formally renounced its plans to join the NATO military alliance.

• Ukraine's military command claims to have beaten back assaults by Russian forces in the direction of Donetsk, making gains in the settlements of Soledar, Zaitseve and Mayorsk.

• Kyiv is set to increase the number of districts on the war's front lines where civilian evacuations will be mandatory, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said, as those areas could be occupied by Russian forces and face central heating problems this winter.

• Video from Reuters shows Russia's Gazprom burning off an estimated $10m worth of natural gas every day at a plant near the Finnish border which experts say would previously have been exported to Germany.

• The U.S. and India have had constructive talks on a plans to cap prices of Russian oil, said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, as Washington attempts to build global support for a proposal to cut Russian revenue. 

• Russia has blocked the adoption of nuclear disarmament text at the UN following a four-week conference on a disarmament treaty, with Moscow denouncing what it said were "political" aspects of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The conference's president said it was "not in a position to achieve agreement" after Russia took issue with the document.

• NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called for intensifying the alliance's military presence in the North Pole to counter Russia, as he wrapped up a visit to Canada that included a tour of its Arctic defenses. 

• Russia has likely stepped up attacks in Donetsk over the last five days in a move that could be aimed at drawing in Ukrainian troops to destabilze Kyiv's counterattack in the eastern Ukrainian region, Britain's defense ministry said.

• Hungary is forging ahead with the €2.5-billion construction of two new nuclear reactors by Russia's Rosatom, saying it would begin in the coming weeks after a regulatory approval was issued despite the Ukraine conflict.

• Britain's defense ministry has gifted Ukraine with six underwater drones to help clear its coastline of mines and make grain shipments safer.

IN DETAIL

Nuclear plant resumes power supply to Ukraine

The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is now providing electricity to Ukraine again after two of its six reactors were reconnected to the Ukrainian grid.

Europe's largest nuclear power plant, located in southern Ukraine, was disconnected from the the country's energy grid for the first time in its history on Thursday after a fire caused by shelling damaged a power line.

"Thus, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, despite numerous provocations by the occupiers, continues to function inside the Ukrainian energy grid," Ukrainian state energy company Energoatom said after the second reactor was reconnected.

READ MORE

UK woman's search for missing Chinese father

Europe's cost-of-living crisis

Berlin's historic gas lamps under threat

Russian-backed forces took control of the nuclear plant in March, though it is still operated by Ukrainian technicians working for Energoatom.

The first reactor was reconnected at around 2:00 pm local time (11:00 GMT) and the second at 9:15 pm, the company said. The two are the only working reactors of the six at the plant.

The facility had supplied more than 20 percent of Ukraine's electricity needs before the conflict started and its loss would put heavy strain on the country's government, which is already concerned about potentially crippling energy shortages this winter.

"Let me stress that the situation remains very risky and dangerous," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his regular evening address, praising Ukrainian experts working to "avert the worst-case scenario."

"Any repeat of yesterday's events, meaning any disconnection of the station from the grid, any action by Russia that could provoke the disconnection of reactors, would once again place the station one step away from a catastrophe,"he added.