TOP HEADLINES

· Swedish investigators have found traces of explosives at the site of the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, confirming that gross sabotage had taken place. Russia will wait until a full damage assessment to the pipelines is done before deciding on any repairs, if any, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. 

· President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said millions of Ukrainians had no electricity as fresh Russian strikes hit cities across Ukraine and crippled the country's energy infrastructure. "Currently, more than 10 million Ukrainians are without electricity," he said, adding that the regions of Odesa, Vinnytsia, Sumy and Kyiv were the worst affected.

· The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors passed a resolution expressing "grave concern" that Russia had not heeded calls to cease action against nuclear facilities in Ukraine. The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors urged Moscow "to abandon its baseless claims of ownership of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant."

· Ukrainian experts have arrived in Poland as part of an investigation to determine where a missile that killed two people was fired from, according to the Ukrainian foreign ministry. "Our experts are already in Poland," said Dmytro Kuleba on Twitter. "We expect them to swiftly get access to the site in cooperation with Polish law enforcement." READ MORE BELOW

· The scale of torture that has been discovered in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson taken back from Russian troops this month is "horrific," a Ukrainian ombudsman said. READ MORE BELOW

· Russia's use of newly-produced landmines in Ukraine poses the greatest challenge to the landmark Mine Ban Treaty struck 25 years ago. Moscow has developed new anti-personnel mines and used ones made as recently as 2021 in Ukraine, the Landmine Monitor said.

· Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called EU sanctions against Russia "a step towards war," describing the bloc's Russia policy as dangerous. "It's a step towards war, if someone intervenes economically in a military conflict," Orban said during a radio interview, adding that "taking a stand" could quickly amount to "becoming an actual belligerent."  

· Russia said it was strengthening positions on the Crimean peninsula, absorbed from Ukraine in 2014, as Kyiv's forces reclaim territory in the neighboring Kherson region. "Fortification work is being carried out on the territory of Crimea under my control with the aim of guaranteeing the security of all Crimeans," the Moscow-appointed Governor of the region, Sergei Aksyonov, said on social media.

· French President Emmanuel Macron urged Asian countries to join the "increasing consensus" against the conflict in Ukraine, telling them the war was "your problem" too.

IN DETAIL

Ukrainian experts arrive in Poland to investigate missile strike

Ukrainian experts have arrived in Poland as part of an investigation to determine where a missile that killed two people was fired from, the Ukrainian foreign minister said. "Our experts are already in Poland," said Dmytro Kuleba on Twitter. "We expect them to swiftly get access to the site in cooperation with Polish law enforcement."

A missile struck the Polish village of Przewodow near the Ukrainian border on Tuesday, killing two people and raising fears of an escalation in the conflict.

"Ukraine and Poland will cooperate constructively and openly on the incident caused by Russian missile terror against Ukraine," Kuleba wrote. 

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the missile was Russian but Kyiv's allies said the explosion was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile launched to intercept Russian attacks. Warsaw, Washington and NATO stressed that Moscow was ultimately to blame for attacking Ukraine. 

The Kremlin has said it had "nothing to do with the incident."

Kherson: 'The scale of torture is horrific'

The scale of torture that has been discovered in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson taken back from Russian troops this month is "horrific", a Ukrainian ombudsman said. "I have not seen a scale like this before," Dmytro Lubynets told AFP.

Since the Russian army retreated last week following eight months of occupation, chilling accounts have started to emerge of abuse, mistreatment and torture in Kherson. Lubynets said the authorities had found "torture chambers" where he said dozens of people had been held.

He said Ukrainians were electrocuted and beaten with metal pipes. "After that, they were killed," Lubynets said, adding that he had spoken to a man who had been kept in such a place for 45 days. "During this time, he saw dozens of people being tortured," Lubynets added.

He said Ukrainians expected to find more such places. "Because this is the system. The system built by the Russian Federation," he added. 

AFP news agency has spoken to a Kherson resident who says he spent weeks in detention, where he was beaten and electrocuted by Russian and pro-Russian forces. Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations of war crimes by Ukraine and it's western allies.