Local residents stand next to a crater following a missile strike in the center of Kharkiv. /Sergey Bobok/AFP
TOP HEADLINES
• The fifth reactor at Zaporizhzhia has been reconnected to Ukraine's grid, a day after it shut down due to shelling near the site, Ukraine's state nuclear agency Energoatom said.
• The "physical integrity" of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine has been "violated," said Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Grossi led a team of inspectors to the Russian-controlled plant, which has been frequently shelled in recent weeks, raising fears of a nuclear incident. READ MORE BELOW
• Rafael Grossi said that part of the mission to the Russia-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine will stay at the facility "until Sunday or Monday, continuing with the assessment." Two IAEA inspectors will stay at the plant on a permanent basis, Russia's ambassador to international institutions in Vienna told the RIA Novosti news agency.
• The IAEA mission could still be important despite the difficulties met due to Russian presence at the site, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. "We did everything to ensure that IAEA would get access to the Zaporizhzhia plant and I believe that this mission may still have a role to play," Zelenskyy said. "Unfortunately we haven't heard the main thing from the IAEA which is the call for Russia to demilitarize the station," he added.
• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused Ukraine of "nuclear terrorism" and rejected assertions by Kyiv and the West that Russia had deployed heavy weapons at the nuclear power facility.
• G7 members announced plans to urgently implement a price cap on Russian oil imports in an effort to sap the Kremlin of some of its export earnings and funding for the offensive in Ukraine. The ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States did not say what price they would pay for Russian crude.
• A 31-year-old woman from eastern Ukraine has been detained on accusations of sending the locations of her soldier husband's unit and other army assets to Russian military intelligence, Ukraine's State Security Service (SBU) said. The unnamed woman from Dnipropetrovsk region passed on information about the locations of military buildings and equipment along frontline positions in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, the SBU wrote on Telegram.
• Russian energy giant Gazprom is poised to restart gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany on schedule on Saturday after a three-day halt for maintenance, two sources familiar with Gazprom's plans said. The Kremlin warned that the Nord Stream pipeline may face future technical difficulties after ongoing maintenance works.
• Swedish home appliance giant Electrolux and French industrial gas company Air Liquide both announced plans to withdraw from Russia, the latest foreign firms to leave since Moscow attacked Ukraine.
• U.S. law enforcement raided two New York properties belonging to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and the target of sanctions, NBC News reported.
IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi led a team of inspectors to the Russian-controlled plant that has been frequently shelled in recent weeks. /IAEA/Reuters
IN DETAIL
IAEA: 'The physical integrity of the plant has been violated'
The "physical integrity" of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine has been "violated," the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said after a visit on Thursday.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi led a team of inspectors to the Russian-controlled plant that has been frequently shelled in recent weeks raising fears of a nuclear incident.
"It is obvious that the plant and physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times," Grossi told reporters after he returned with part of his team to the Ukrainian-controlled area.
"I worry and I will continue to be worried about the plant," he said, adding, however, that the situation was "more predictable" now.
"We have spent there four or five hours. I have seen a lot, and I have my people there, we were able to tour the whole site," Grossi said about the long-anticipated inspection.
He said that part of his 14-strong mission to the plant will stay at the facility "until Sunday or Monday, continuing with the assessment."
"We are going to continue presence there, some of my experts. We have a lot of work there, to do analysis of some technical aspects," Grossi said.
He did not specify how many people will be staying at the facility, adding that "we could draw up a number of questions and initial observations, initial assessments, and they are going to dig deeper into that so that we could have a report."
"This morning the situation was pretty difficult," he said.