Ukraine has slammed Russia’s unsubstantiated claims that Kyiv is planning to use a radioactive bomb in its own territory, calling the claims “dangerous” lies and prompting the US, France and Britain to jointly warn Moscow against using any pretext for escalating the conflict.
On the ground, Russia fired missiles and drones into the Ukrainian-held southern town of Mykolaiv, destroying an apartment block, as it ordered 60,000 people to flee the region of Kherson in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. Read our live blog to follow the day’s events. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
12:24pm: France, Germany show ‘no desire’ to mediate Ukraine talks (Kremlin)
The Kremlin said Monday that France and Germany were showing “no desire” to participate in mediation on the Ukrainian conflict and praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer to organise talks.
“Ankara takes a different position from that of Paris and Berlin … and has declared its readiness to continue mediation efforts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“(French President Emmanuel) Macron and (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz have shown no desire to listen to Russia’s position or participate in mediation efforts,” he added.
12:19pm: Blowing up dam would be a boomerang for Russia, Ukraine’s spy chief warns
Russia would slow Ukraine’s advance by just two weeks if it blows up the vast Kakhovka dam, Kyiv’s military spy chief has said, warning that such a move would flood territory occupied by Moscow and lose it a vital water canal for annexed Crimea.
Kyrylo Budanov made the comments to Ukrainska Pravda in an interview published on Monday after President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Russia had mined the hydro-electric dam on the Dnipro River and was preparing to blow it up.
Russia, whose troops are on the back foot in the occupied Kherson region which Kyiv is trying to recapture, has itself accused Ukraine of plotting to blow up the dam, a step that would unleash a devastating flood.
Budanov, head of the Defence Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, said the dam had been only partially mined by Russia and that destroying it completely would require many tonnes of explosives.
“They will get a total flooding of the (Russian-occupied) left bank of Kherson. They will lose even theoretically the possibility of supplying water to the North Crimean Canal, to Crimea…,” he said.
11:05am: Russian TV presenter apologises for call to drown Ukrainian children
Anton Krasovsky, a presenter for state-controlled broadcaster RT, has apologised for stating in a show last week that Ukrainian children who saw Russians as occupiers should have been “thrown straight into a river with a strong current” and drowned.
Margarita Simonyan, the channel’s editor-in-chief, said she had suspended Krasovsky because of his “disgusting” comments, adding that no one at RT shared his views.
Krasovsky said in a social media post he was “really embarrassed”. Russia’s state Investigative Committee said it was probing his remarks
State television, heavily controlled by the Kremlin, has been a vocal cheerleader of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, often calling on Putin to take an even more aggressive approach to the war.
9:50am: Officials in Russian-occupied Kherson announce citizen militia
The Russian-installed administration of occupied Kherson region says it is organising militia units using local civilians to fight a Ukrainian counter offensive.
In a notice on Telegram, the occupation authorities said men had the “opportunity” to join territorial defence units if they chose to remain in Kherson of their own free will.
However, men in other occupied Ukrainian regions such as Donetsk have previously been compelled to join up and fight with the armies of Russia’s proxies in the war with Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin last week declared martial law in the occupied regions, empowering their Russian-installed administrations to step up mobilisation.
8:45am: West warns Moscow against seeking ‘pretext for escalation’
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has tweeted the French version of the joint statement with her US and UK counterparts, rejecting Russian allegations that Kyiv is planning to use radioactive bombs.
“The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation,” the statement reads.
8:25am: Wagner militia leads Russian assaults on Bakhmut
While Moscow’s forces are being pushed back by a Ukrainian counter offensive in the southern Kherson region, Russian forces continue their assault on the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, backed by mercenaries from the Wagner Group, says FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg, reporting from Kyiv.
Cragg also brings us the latest on Kyiv’s reactions to Russian allegations that Ukraine is planning to use “dirty bombs” laced with radioactive material.
7:30am: UK says Russia continues to use Iranian drones against Ukraine
Russia continues to use Iranian uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) against targets throughout the Ukrainian territory, the British Ministry of Defence has said in its daily intelligence briefing on the war in Ukraine.
Russia is likely using the Iranian Shahed-136 UAVs to infiltrate Ukranian air defences and as a substitute for Russian-manufactured long-range precision weapons that are becoming increasingly scarce, the ministry said in its update on Twitter.
Ukrainian efforts to contain the UAVs are increasingly successful, the ministry added.
4:45am: Russia strikes Ukraine’s Mykolaiv, orders civilians to evacuate Kherson
Russia has fired missiles and drones into the Ukrainian-held southern town of Mykolaiv, destroying an apartment block, even as it ordered 60,000 people to flee the Kherson region “to save your lives” in the face of a Ukrainian counter offensive.
Sunday’s missile strike in Mykolaiv wiped out the top floor of the apartment block, sending shrapnel and debris across a plaza and into neighbouring buildings, Reuters witnessed. No fatalities were recorded.
“After the first blast, I tried to get out, but the door was stuck,” said Oleksandr Mezinov, 50, who was woken from his bed by the blasts. “After a minute or two, there was a second loud blast. Our door was blown into the corridor.”
Ukraine’s General Staff said anti-aircraft defences had shot down 12 of Russia’s Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones in the past 24 hours.
2:53am: US, UK, France jointly reject Russia ‘dirty bomb’ claim
The United States, Britain and France have jointly dismissed Russian claims that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb and warned Moscow against using any pretext for escalating the conflict.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu made the allegation about a possible dirty bomb attack in a round of telephone conversations with Western defense chiefs earlier Sunday.
“Our countries made clear that we all reject Russia’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory,” the US State Department said in a joint statement with the British and French governments.
“The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation,” the statement went on. “We further reject any pretext for escalation by Russia.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted on Sunday that he spoke to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to “reject Russia’s false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory”.
10:54pm: Iran says will provide Russia with ’40 turbines’
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Iran announced Sunday a contract with Russia to supply it with 40 turbines to help its gas industry amid Western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, local media reported.
Iran’s “industrial successes are not limited to the fields of missiles and drones”, Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company’s CEO, Reza Noushadi, was quoted as saying by Shana, the oil ministry’s news agency.
“Currently, 85 percent of the facilities and equipment needed by the gas industry are built inside the country, and based on this capability, a contract has recently been signed to export 40 Iranian-made turbines to Russia,” he added.
Noushadi did not specify when the contract was signed, and when the turbines are due to be delivered.
