TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine's president said Russian troops were holding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant "hostage" and its safety could not be guaranteed until they left it. Russia has occupied the plant since the early weeks of the conflict.

• Possible drone attacks against key energy infrastructure are a serious threat to Russia's energy security, Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said on Tuesday. Russia says it has foiled a number of drone attacks from Ukraine in recent months.

• Russia has successfully redirected all its crude oil exports affected by Western sanctions over Ukraine to "friendly" countries, Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said on Tuesday.

• Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has thanked the UK for its support after taking a ride in what he said was the first British Challenger 2 main battle tank to arrive in Ukraine.

• Germany says its first shipment of Leopard 2 tanks has been sent to Ukraine. Eighteen state-of-the-art tanks were sent after Ukrainian troops underwent training to learn how to use them.

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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops were holding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant "hostage" and its safety could not be guaranteed until they left it, while his forces shut off the frontline town of Avdiivka as they planned their next move.

Russian troops have occupied the nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, since the early weeks of the conflict and have shown no inclination to relinquish control.

"Holding a nuclear power station hostage for more than a year - this is surely the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of European or world-wide nuclear power," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

He decried the Russian presence as "radiation blackmail."

His comments followed a meeting with Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station.

Initiatives on restoring safety and security are "doomed to failure" without a withdrawal of Russian troops from the plant, Zelenskiy said in comments posted on the presidential website. Russia and Ukraine routinely accuse each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia plant. Fighting around it and worries of a water shortage and that cooling systems could lose power have raised fears of a nuclear disaster.

A team of IAEA experts has since September been stationed at the plant, which Kyiv has accused Moscow of using as a shield for troops and military hardware. Grossi has repeatedly called for a safety zone around it and is due to visit it again this week. He has tried to negotiate with both sides but said in January that brokering a deal was getting harder.

Zaporizhzhia is one of four regions Russia claimed as independent in September after referendums. Russia views the plant as its territory, which Ukraine denies. Zelenskyy visited the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, the latest stage of a tour of frontline regions since a top general said Ukraine's counterattack could come soon.

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