Russia-Ukraine latest updates: Kyiv begins Kherson counterattack

Ukrainian forces launched a barrage of rockets at the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka, leaving it without water or power, officials at the Russian-appointed local authority told RIA news agency.

The town lies just to the east of the city of Kherson, the target of a major counteroffensive that Ukraine launched earlier in the day.

Germany faces the “bitter reality” that Russia will not restore gas supplies to the country, the German economy minister has said, ahead of a planned halt by Russian state energy giant Gazprom of exports to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

“It won’t come back … It is the bitter reality,” Robert Habeck said while speaking on a panel.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at the same event, stressed that a full reform of the European electricity market has to be done properly and technically at the beginning of next year.

The Russian defence ministry says that Ukraine’s troops have attempted an offensive in the southern Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, sustaining significant casualties, RIA news agency reported.

“Enemy’s offensive attempt failed miserably,” it said.

Russian shelling hit residential areas of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, killing two people and destroying homes, city officials and witnesses have said.

A Reuters news agency correspondent at the scene said the shelling hit a family home directly next to a school, killing one woman. Both houses on the property were left in ruins, with large craters gouged out of the ground in front.

Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said on Telegram that at least two people had been killed and residential homes and educational institutions had been hit. The local governor, Vitaliy Kim, said on Telegram that 24 people had also been injured.

The owner of the home, Alexander Shulga, told Reuters he grew up in the house and had lived there his entire life. His wife died at the scene, Shulga said.

The White House has said that Russia should agree to a demilitarised zone around the Ukrainian nuclear plant that has become a dangerous front line in the ongoing war.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters the Biden administration supports a visit led by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on the Dnieper river in southern central Ukraine.

A controlled shutdown of the plant would be the safest option, he said.

Russia’s oil output has exceeded expectations in the wake of the war in Ukraine but Moscow will find it increasingly difficult to uphold production as Western sanctions begin to bite, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.

“In the absence of (western) companies, in the absence of the technology providers, in the absence of service companies, it will be much harder for Russia to maintain the production,” IEA chief Fatih Birol told Reuters.

Russian domestic demand has so far remained robust, and the country also offers large discounts to non-European buyers, Birol said on the sidelines of a conference in Stavanger in southern Norway.

Nations that are members of the IEA could meanwhile release more oil from strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) if they find it necessary when the current scheme expires in November, he added.

He also said trust in Russia as an energy supplier had been eroded around the world following the invasion of Ukraine and its cuts to gas exports and that the loss of Europe as a partner would hurt Moscow.

“Russia is not winning the energy battle here,” Birol said. The upcoming winter season will be a test of Europe’s solidarity and if the continent fails when tested, the effect may be felt “beyond this energy crisis”, Birol said.

Nations that are members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) could release more oil from strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) if they find it necessary when the current scheme expires, the head of the agency has said.

“If our member countries believe that as a result of the supply disruption there is a need to make a stock release, I am sure (they) will consider (it) and it is not off the table,” Fatih Birol told the Reuters news agency on the sidelines of a conference.

Austria says it is preparing to pump billions of euros into the electricity company that supplies much of Vienna after a price surge in power markets left it unable to afford the guarantees needed to cover market transactions.

Wien Energie, which is owned by the city of Vienna, asked the federal government for help at the weekend and the city has identified an “acute financing need” of 6 billion euros($6bn), the finance ministry said in a statement.

“The federal government has the instruments and the will to help the City of Vienna in this financial emergency. It is about ensuring security of supply for two million people, which must happen,” the ministry said, adding that talks were ongoing and there remained “many questions”.

The ministry said it was considering a loan worth billions of euros, to be handled by the Federal Financing Agency that issues government bonds and other debt instruments.

Radiation levels at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are normal and the situation at the site is under control, the RIA Novosti news agency cited Russian-installed officials as saying.

The Russian-installed administration said earlier that Ukrainian forces had hit with an artillery raid the roof of a building used to store reactor fuel.

Moscow and Kyiv have been trading accusations over the attacks on the area around the nuclear site.

Ukrainian forces have started a long-awaited counteroffensive to regain territory in the south seized by Russian forces since their invasion six months ago, the country’s southern command spokeswoman has said.

“Today we started offensive actions in various directions, including in the Kherson region,” Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne cited Natalia Humeniuk as saying.

She declined to give details of the counteroffensive, saying Russian forces in southern Ukraine remained “quite powerful”.

Humeniuk also said that Ukraine had struck more than 10 ammunition dumps in the past week, adding they had “unquestionably weakened the enemy”.

The governor of Ukraine’s Russian-annexed Crimea Peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, dismissed her announcement as “another fake of Ukrainian propaganda”. Crimea is adjacent to the Kherson region.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been hit with cluster munitions, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

As a result, a building and the headquarters of the regional administration in the city centre were damaged. No casualties were immediately reported.

Dmytro, a local resident, said “at least five strikes” were seen in the area. He said his house and his daughter’s school were “partially destroyed”.

A crater, roughly 5 metres (16 feet) deep, was also found.

Hungary will continue talks with Russia on additional gas supplies and expects to reach a deal with Gazprom to increase supplies further from next month, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said.

Szijjarto met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last month, seeking 700 million cubic metres of gas on top of an existing long-term supply deal with Russia.

Gazprom started to increase gas supplies to Hungary this month, adding to previously agreed deliveries via the TurkStream pipeline.

The European Union is planning to suspend an agreement that eases the path for Russians to apply for visas to travel to the bloc, an EU diplomat has told reporters.

“We cannot continue the visa policy as it has been up to now,” he said, requesting not to be named, before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague to discuss the Ukraine invasion.

Russia is trying to prevent European nations from filling their gas storage enough to cope with the coming winter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

He was addressing an oil and gas conference in Norway via video link.

Russia’s defence ministry has said its forces shot down a Ukrainian drone which was trying to attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Russian news agencies reported.

The ministry said there was no serious damage and radiation levels were normal. It said the drone had been shot down near the facility’s nuclear waste enclosure.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.

Russia and Ukraine have denied shelling the Zaporizhzhia plant in recent weeks, accusing each other of doing so.

KEEP READING:

• IAEA team ‘on its way’ to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
• Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 187
• EU’s Borrell says visa ban for Russians would lack support

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 187th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on Russia to leave the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Speaking in Stockholm, Kuleba said Russian forces leaving the facility would be “the only way to ensure nuclear security at the power plant”.

A top Russian diplomat has said Moscow welcomes the upcoming IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia power station, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to the international organisations in Vienna, said Russia had made a significant contribution to the visit, which the IAEA said will take place this week.

The Group of Seven’s Non-Proliferation Directors’ Group has welcomed an upcoming visit by the UN nuclear watchdog to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and reiterated concerns about the safety of the plant under the control of Russian armed forces.

“We reaffirm that the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant and the electricity that it produces rightly belong to Ukraine and stress that attempts by Russia to disconnect the plant from the Ukrainian power grid would be unacceptable,” it said in a statement.

A Russian-installed official in eastern Ukraine has said authorities would ensure the safety of the upcoming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the TASS news agency reported.

The IAEA team will visit the plant occupied by Russian forces but still managed by Ukrainian staff this week. The Russian-backed authorities in the region said on Monday they have not been informed about the details of the visit, TASS reported.