TOP HEADLINES

• Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of plotting to stage an attack on the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron about Russian "dangerous provocations" at the plant. READ MORE BELOW

• At least 38 people, including 12 children, were wounded in a Russian missile strike which an officer said targeted a military funeral in the northeastern Kharkiv region. 

• A Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces has been "particularly fruitful" in the past few days, a senior security official said, while a deputy defense minister reported gains around the shattered city of Bakhmut.

• Ukrainian forces fired on Russia's Kursk and Belgorod border regions in the early hours of Wednesday, the regions' governors said, injuring at least one person and damaging multiple private homes.

• One civilian was killed and 36 were injured in Ukrainian attacks on Moscow-controlled Makiivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region, according to Russian-backed officials. Kyiv said the attack had destroyed a formation of Russian forces.

• President Putin said the Russian economy was performing better than expected after Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin reported to him that the country's gross domestic product was projected to rise by 2 percent while inflation wasn't expected to exceed 5 percent.

• Russia said there were "certain contacts" with the U.S. over the case of a detained Wall Street Journal reporter, making the statement a day after U.S. ambassador Lynne Tracy was allowed to visit Evan Gershkovich, who is accused of spying, in a Moscow prison.

• As world leaders try to avert the collapse of the Black Sea grain deal, Russia has dismissed an EU proposal to reconnect Russia's state agricultural bank to the global SWIFT payments system as 'deliberately unworkable', with just 13 days remaining until the expiry of the agreement. The Kremlin said that it has not taken a final decision on a potential extension.

• Russia's FSB security service says it has detained a man suspected of planning to destroy an energy facility on Sakhalin island off Russia's Pacific coast. The FSB said the man was found with improvised explosive devices and was a follower of "Ukrainian neo-Nazism."

• Pope Francis' peace envoy for Ukraine is working on a "mechanism" that could ensure the return of children who according to Kyiv have been abducted to Russia, saying he had discussed the issue with Francis.

IN DETAIL

'Dangerous provocations' at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

The threat of Ukrainian sabotage of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is big and measures are being taken to counter such a threat, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, as Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of plotting to stage an attack on Europe's biggest nuclear facility.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the consequences of such sabotage could be catastrophic.

"The situation is quite tense because there is indeed a great threat of sabotage by the Kyiv regime, which could be catastrophic in its consequences," he said.

"The Kyiv regime has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to do anything. Therefore, all measures are being taken to counter such a threat."

That's after Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the head of Russia's nuclear network, said Ukraine planned to drop ammunition laced with nuclear waste transported from another of the country's five nuclear stations on the plant.

"Under cover of darkness overnight on July 5, the Ukrainian military will try to attack the Zaporizhzhia station using long-range precision equipment and kamikaze attack drones," Russian news agencies quoted Karchaa as telling Russian television. He offered no evidence in support of his allegation.

In contrast, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he had informed his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about Russia's "dangerous provocations" at the plant in southeastern Ukraine.

He said he and Macron had "agreed to keep the situation under maximum control together with the IAEA", the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency.

In his nightly video message, Zelenskyy said Moscow was planning to "simulate an attack on the plant. Or they could have some other kind of scenario.

"But in any case, the world sees – and cannot fail to see – that the only source of danger to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is Russia. And no one else."

Russian troops seized the station, Europe's largest nuclear facility with six reactors, in the days following the Kremlin's assault on Ukraine in February 2022.

Each side has since regularly accused the other of shelling around the plant and risking a major nuclear mishap.

The IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, has been trying for more than a year to agree a deal to ensure the plant is demilitarized to reduce the risks of any nuclear accident.

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