Ukraine war update: Nuclear plant without power, running on generators, UN watchdog reports

Zaporizhzhia lost regular power after military activity on the northern bank of the Dnipro River, according to a statement. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was seeking a local cease‑fire to enable repairs of the plant’s electricity lines. The facility in southern Ukraine was captured by Russian forces in March 2022 and its six reactors have remained shut down since then.

German officials are preparing to attribute an attempted drone strike on Leipzig airport to Russia and to impose sanctions on Russian entities, according to reports. Friedrich Merz’s government is expected to announce extensive measures next week, potentially alongside a new EU sanctions package.

Ukrainian prosecutors have opened an investigation into why munitions were stored so close to residential areas after a deadly Russian attack on a warehouse near Kyiv’s western suburbs. The strike in the village of Myla killed at least 37 people, making it the war’s deadliest attack this year. The blast damaged more than 50 homes, including a care facility for the elderly and disabled, and triggered a large fire and explosions in the Bucha district. Regional governor Tymur Tkachenko reported that 42 people, among them four children, were injured.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the warehouse was a military depot that should not have held ammunition, drones and other ordnance. “The first impact hit a place where ammunition was being stored – a defence‑force depot – causing a massive detonation of shells, mines and drones,” he said in a video address.

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told Bild that he did not believe Russia would risk an attack on a Nato country, saying there was “no evidence or facts” to support such a claim and that it “would make no sense” to test the alliance’s resolve. He added that NATO must be ready for any scenario but that Russia is not in a position to go to war with the alliance.

The Russian defence ministry reported that its forces had taken the village of Khrapivshchyna in Sumy region and the villages of Novoandriivka and Rubizhne in Donetsk. It said it had struck a logistics centre in the Kyiv region where components for Ukrainian ballistic missiles were stored; the claim could not be independently verified. Separately, local authorities in Russia’s Belgorod region said a Ukrainian drone attack killed three people and injured nine.