TOP HEADLINES

· Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country must fend off Moscow's campaign "so that Russian tanks do not advance on Warsaw or again on Prague". Addressing a meeting in Prague of European heads of state convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, Zelenskyy also called on Western capitals to supply his army with more weapons "to punish the aggressor". 

· International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said the UN nuclear watchdog considered the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to be a Ukrainian facility.

· A Russian-installed official in Ukraine suggested President Vladimir Putin's defense minister should consider killing himself due to the shame of the defeats in the Ukraine conflict, an astonishing public insult to Russia's top brass. A growing list of failings and defeats in Ukraine have spawned angry outbursts from Russia's elite, who still support the "military operation" but have gone as far as to suggest army chiefs should face the firing squad. READ MORE BELOW

· At least two people died and five others were missing in attacks on Ukraine's southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the region's governor said, blaming Russia for the strikes. The Ukrainian-controlled city is located in the eponymous Zaporizhzhia region, also home to the Russian-occupied nuclear plant that has been the site of heavy shelling. 

· Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said three villages in the country's southern Kherson region had been recaptured from Russian troops. "Novovoskresenske, Novogrygorivka and Petropavlivka ... were liberated in the last 24 hours," he said in a video posted on social media, adding that the counter-offensive "continues".

· Russian President Vladimir Putin said he expected the situation to "stabilize" in Ukrainian regions absorbed by the Kremlin which the EU says were illegally annexed.  He also ordered his government to seize control over Europe's largest nuclear power plant in the Russian-controlled region of Zaporizhzhia, with IAEA head Rafael Grossi en route to Kyiv for consultations on the facility. READ MORE BELOW

· The EU imposed its latest round of sanctions on Russia, expanding bans on trade and individuals over Moscow's absorption of four Ukrainian regions, which the bloc says have been illegally annexed.

· The inaugural meeting of the 44-nation European Political Community in Prague showed the continent's "unity" as it grapples with fallout from Russia's offensive in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said. "The objective is first of all to share a common reading of the situation affecting our Europe and also to build a common strategy," Macron said at the start of the summit. 

· U.S. intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government approved a car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified officials.

· Leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipelines released some 70,000 tonnes of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, researchers said - less than previously thought. The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, had already been at the center of geopolitical tensions for months as Russia cut back gas supplies to Europe. Russia's foreign ministry said it was "unthinkable" that an investigation into ruptures on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines would proceed without Russia's participation.

· Norway said it would limit access to its ports for Russian fishing vessels. It's the Nordic country's latest tightening of security following last week's discovery of major leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Russian trawlers will from now on only be allowed to visit three ports and must undergo security checks when they do so, Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt told a news conference.

· The Kremlin denied reports that 700,000 Russians have fled the country since Moscow announced a mobilization drive to call up hundreds of thousands to fight in Ukraine.

IN DETAIL

Russian official publicly criticizes 'generals and ministers'

A Russian-installed official in Ukraine suggested President Vladimir Putin's defense minister should consider killing himself due to the shame of the defeats in the Ukraine conflict, in an astonishing public insult to Russia's top brass.

Russian forces have suffered a series of battlefield defeats in recent months, forcing Putin to announce a partial mobilization.

In a four-minute video message, Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the Kherson region, followed suit, publicly lambasting the "generals and ministers" in Moscow for failing to understand the problems on the front.

"Indeed, many say: if they were a defense minister who had allowed such a state of affairs, they could, as officers, have shot themselves," Stremousov, 45, said. "But you know the word 'officer' is an incomprehensible word for many."

Such public and insulting censure of Putin's military chiefs from within the system used to be extremely rare in Russia, but a series of defeats on the battlefield in Ukraine has prompted some of Putin's allies to rebuke top generals.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, ridiculed generals, saying the military was riddled with nepotism and that senior officers should be stripped of their ranks and sent to the front barefoot to atone for their sins.

The defense ministry did not respond to a written request for comment.

Putin: 'The situation in the new territories will stabilize'

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he expected the situation to "stabilize" in Ukrainian regions absorbed by the Kremlin - illegally annexed according to the EU - after Moscow suffered military setbacks and lost several key towns to Kyiv.

He also ordered his government to seize control over Europe's largest nuclear power plant in the Russian-controlled region of Zaporizhzhia, with IAEA head Rafael Grossi en route to Kyiv for consultations on the facility.

Ukraine earlier claimed victories over Russian troops in the eastern region of Luhansk, as the Kremlin vowed to recapture territory lost in a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive.

In recent weeks, Ukraine's forces - bolstered by Western weapons - have driven Russian troops out of a string of towns and villages in the southern Kherson region and the eastern separatist strongholds of Lugansk and Donetsk.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces had recaptured three villages in the Kherson region from Russian troops. 

"We are working on the assumption that the situation in the new territories will stabilize," Putin told Russian teachers during a televised video call.

Just hours earlier, the Ukrainian-appointed head of Luhansk Sergiy Gaiday announced that the "de-occupation of the Luhansk region has already officially started".

A senior Russian lawmaker called on military officials to tell the truth about developments on the ground in Ukraine following the string of bruising defeats.

"We need to stop lying," the chairman of the lower house of parliament's defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov, told a journalist from state-run media.

"The reports of the defense ministry do not change. The people know. Our people are not stupid. This can lead to loss of credibility."