TOP HEADLINES

· Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the West to dissuade Russia from carrying out an alleged plot to blow up an enormous dam in southern Ukraine, which he said if executed would cause "a large-scale disaster."

· Moscow has accused Kyiv of firing rockets at the Nova Kakhovka dam and planning to destroy it, a statement that Ukrainian officials claimed was a sign that Russia might blow it up and blame Kyiv. Neither side produced evidence to back up the claims.

· The allegations come as some 75 kilometers (47 miles) down stream from the dam, Ukrainian forces prepare to push Moscow's troops from the occupied southern city of Kherson. Kyiv's soldiers north of the city have reported a drop-off in Russian shellfire, a sign they claim that Moscow's forces are suffering manpower, supply and hardware shortages.

· Critical infrastructure across Ukraine came under aerial bombardment again on Saturday, with several regions reporting strikes on energy facilities. Russian air attacks have hit at least half of Ukraine's thermal generation capacity, causing billions of dollars of damage since October 10, Ukraine's energy minister said.

· Kyiv said there have been no signs of progress towards an agreement involving Russia, Ukraine and the UN nuclear watchdog on defusing the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

· Britain, France and Germany have called for a UN probe into Kyiv's accusations that Russia is using Iranian-origin drones to attack Ukraine, in what they said was a violation of a UN Security Council Resolution. Tehran denies supplying the drones to Moscow and Russia has denied its forces used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.

· A Ukrainian air force spokesperson said Kyiv was taking down 85 percent of what it says are Iranian-made "kamikaze" drones fired by Russia, but it still needed it allies' support to block Tehran from selling Moscow ballistic missiles.

· U.S. Defense Secretary Austin and Russian Defence Minister Shoigu spoke for the first time since May; a call that Moscow said was aimed at eliminating misunderstandings. The Pentagon did not offer specifics, but the Pentagon said Austin had requested the conversation.

· Washington will consider every means to advance diplomacy with Russia if it sees an opening, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said, but he added that at the moment Moscow was showing no sign of willingness to take part in meaningful talks. 

· Zelenskyy has accused Russia of deliberately delaying the movement of ships carrying grain exports under a UN brokered-agreement, saying that 150 vessels were still waiting to be loaded.

IN DETAIL

Moscow, Kyiv trade accusations over plot to blow up Kherson dam 

President Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of planning to blow up the huge Nova Kakhovka dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir and if destroyed, would flood a large area of southern Ukraine. 

"Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster," he said.

Russia has in turn accused Kyiv of firing rockets on the dam and planning to destroy the infrastructure. Ukrainian officials said such a statement was a sign that Moscow might blow it up and blame Kyiv. 

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Neither of the warring parties have shown any evidence to support their allegations, but if the event were to take place, it would drastically change the landscape of the conflict in Ukraine's south.

The vast Dnipro cuts through southern Ukraine and is several kilometres wide in places. Bursting the dam could send a wall of water flooding cities and town below it, towards Kherson, which Ukrainian forces are preparing to recapture in a major advance.

It would also severely damage the canal system that irrigates large swathes of southern Ukraine, including Crimea, which Moscow seized and integrated into its own territory in 2014.

Zelenskyy called on world leaders to make clear that blowing up the dam would be treated "exactly the same as the use of weapons of mass destruction," with similar consequences to those threatened if Russia uses nuclear or chemical weapons.

Concern over the dam has echoes of a World War Two disaster at another dam further upriver, which Ukrainian historians said was dynamited by the Soviets as their troops retreated, causing floods that swept away villages and killed thousands of people.

Zelenskyy's warning comes as just down stream from the dam one of the most important battles of the eight-month-old war is coming to a head. Ukrainian forces are advancing along the river's west bank, hoping to recapture the strategic city of Kherson and surround thousands of Russian troops.

Ukraine is refusing to release any information from the Kherson front, but Russian commander General Sergei Surovikin said this week the situation in the area was "already difficult" and Russia was "not ruling out difficult decisions" there.