Ukraine latest updates: Russia shells city near nuclear plant

According to the White House, new intelligence suggests Russia is working to fabricate evidence concerning last week’s deadly attack on the Olenivka Prison housing prisoners of war in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine.

United States intelligence officials have determined that Russia is looking to plant false evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the July 29 attack on the prison that left 53 dead, White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby claimed.

“We anticipate that Russian officials will try to frame the Ukrainian Armed Forces in anticipation of journalists and potential investigators visiting the site of the attack,” Kirby said.

African nations are free to buy grain from Russia but could face consequences if they trade in US-sanctioned commodities such as Russian oil, the US ambassador to the United Nations has said.

“Countries can buy Russian agricultural products, including fertilizer and wheat,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. But she added that “if a country decides to engage with Russia, where there are sanctions, then they are breaking those sanctions.”

“We caution countries not to break those sanctions because then … they stand the chance of having actions taken against them,” she said.

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Al Jazeera correspondent Mike Hanna reporting from the White House in the United States, says the Biden administration had a “bulk of [US] public support” to pursue all avenues to secure basketball star Brittney Griner’s release from Russia, including a prisoner swap.

“In previous prisoner swaps or prisoner returns of those detained unlawfully as the US would put in other countries has been welcomed by the public as a whole. So there is no reason to see why it would be any different in this case,” he said from Washington, DC.

EU member states have slapped sanctions on Ukraine’s deposed pro-Russian former President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr for their alleged role in threatening Ukraine’s security.

In a statement, the European Council said the pair were added to an existing EU sanctions list set up “in response to the ongoing unjustified and unprovoked Russian military aggression against Ukraine”.

The German cabinet has agreed to introduce a planned levy on gas consumers from October to help suppliers hit by soaring gas import prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the economy ministry revealed.

“The temporary levy is a result of the crisis caused by Russia. It is not an easy step to take, but a necessary one to guarantee heating and energy supply in private households and the economy,” said economy minister Robert Habeck in a statement.

Three more ships filled with grain will sail from Ukraine on Friday under a UN-backed deal lifting Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea, Turkey’s defence minister has announced.

“It is planned that three ships will set sail tomorrow from Ukraine,” the Anadolu state news agency quoted defence minister Hulusi Akar as saying, one day after the first ship passed Istanbul on its way to Lebanon.

Ankara also announced that Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the agreement’s implementation by phone with UN chief Antonio Guterres, without disclosing further details.

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A US embassy official has said that a Russian court decision to send basketball star Griner to prison for drug possession and smuggling was a “miscarriage of justice”.

Speaking outside the court, US Embassy Chief of Mission Elizabeth Rood said the embassy will continue to be closely engaged with the case.

Griner’s legal team, meanwhile, said they intended to appeal the verdict and added their client had been left “very upset” by the verdict. US President Joe Biden denounced as “unacceptable” the verdict and sentence, which came amid soaring tensions between the US and Russia over Ukraine.

Russian forces have shelled a Ukrainian city close to Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant Thursday, reinforcing warnings from the UN nuclear chief that the fighting around the site could lead to a disastrous accident.

Dnipropetrovsk’s regional governor said Russia fired 60 rockets at Nikopol, across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has been under Russian supervision since Moscow’s troops seized it early in the war.

Some 50 residential buildings were damaged in the city of 107,000, and residents were left without electricity, Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.

Top Ukrainian officials have rejected a report by Amnesty International that Kyiv’s military tactics put civilians at risk, calling it “unfair”.

“This behaviour of Amnesty International is not about finding and conveying the truth to the world,” foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a video message posted on his personal Facebook page.

“It is about creating a false balance between the criminal and the victim, between a country that is annihilating civilian populations by the hundreds and the thousands, [is destroying] cities and entire areas, and a country that is desperately defending itself, saving its people and the continent from this invasion,” Kuleba added.

Canada will send up to 225 personnel to the United Kingdom to train Ukrainian military recruits, starting with the first troops next week, Canadian defence minister Anita Anand has said.

Since 2015, the Canadian Armed Forces has trained more than 33,000 Ukrainian military and security personnel, but paused aspects of the training effort since February.

“We have now entered a new and very dangerous phase of this conflict with (Russia) engaging in a protracted attempt to inflict long-term damage on Ukraine and its people,” Anand said in Toronto.

A Russian court has sentenced US basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years prison on drugs charges, after finding her guilty of narcotics possession and smuggling for bringing cannabis-infused vape cartridges into Russia.

Her sentencing could pave the way for a US-Russia prisoner swap that would include the 31-year-old athlete and an imprisoned Russian who was once a prolific arms dealer.

The US Senate has ratified the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, strongly backing the expansion of the transatlantic military alliance in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With the agreement of all 30 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization needed before hitherto non-aligned Finland and Sweden can join, the United States becomes the 23rd to give the nod.

Of the seven member countries which have yet to formally agree, only Turkey has raised a challenge, demanding certain concessions from both countries to back their memberships.

The prime minister of Estonia has announced that all remaining monuments in the country dating back to the Soviet era will be removed.

“The main thing is decided – Soviet monuments must be removed from public space, and we will do that as soon as possible,” Kaja Kallas said in Tallinn.

According to Kallas, there are still between 200 and 400 Soviet-era monuments in Estonia.

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Ukrainian forces have exposed civilians to Russian attacks at times by basing themselves in schools, residential buildings and other places in populated areas, according to Amnesty International.

In a report released Thursday, Amnesty said its researchers between April and July “found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas, as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages” in three regions of the country.

Amnesty also said it found Ukrainian forces using hospitals as military bases in five places, which the human rights group called “a clear violation of international humanitarian law”.

Russian prosecutors have requested that US basketball player Brittney Griner be sentenced to nine and a half years in prison on drug smuggling charges.

“I ask the court to find Griner guilty and sentence her to nine years and six months in prison,” prosecutor Nikolay Vlasenko said, requesting a fine of 1 million roubles [$16,590] in addition for the 31-year-old athlete.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on February 17 with vape cartridges containing hashish oil – a potent form of cannabis – in her luggage.

Cannabis is illegal in Russia for both medicinal and recreational purposes.

“The verdict is expected to be announced this evening,” said Griner’s lawyer Maria Blagovolina.

Moscow has said a Norwegian consul could no longer stay in Russia after she was filmed declaring “I hate Russians” during an angry outburst at a hotel reception.

“After what happened, Elisabeth Ellingsen’s presence in Russia is impossible,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, the foreign ministry summoned Norwegian Ambassador Rune Resaland to protest against Ellingsen’s “insulting Russophobic remarks”.

The Norwegian diplomat was recorded insulting Russians at a hotel reception in the Arctic city of Murmansk.

The video was posted over the weekend by the Mash Telegram channel, reputed to be close to the Russian security services, and sparked an outcry in the country.

“I hate Russians … Just give me a room … I’m used to clean rooms. I’m from Scandinavia,” Ellingsen was recorded as saying in English.

The European Union intends to put together another financing package for Ukraine by September that will amount to about $8.15bn (eight billion euros), a German government source said.

Part of the package would be made up of grants that do not have to be repaid while another part will consist of loans, a government official told journalists.

The envisaged aid should support the Ukrainian government’s budget, while military, humanitarian and reconstruction aid would be financed from other sources.

Germany will also contribute to the new aid package, the source said, adding that other EU countries such as Italy and France have held back so far and that Berlin is in close contact with its European partners and the European Commission on the issue.

In May, the Group of Seven’s financial leaders agreed on $9.5bn in new aid to Ukraine, mainly from the United States. Germany had contributed one billion euros (about $1bn) in the May package, which it has already paid.

Russia should not be allowed to win the war in Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

“It’s in our interest that this type of aggressive policy does not succeed,” Stoltenberg said in a speech in his native Norway.

“If President Putin even thinks of doing something similar to a NATO country as he has done to Georgia, Moldova or Ukraine, then all of NATO will be involved immediately,” he continued.

To prevent Moscow from succeeding, NATO and its member countries may have to continue to support Ukraine with arms and other assistance for a long time to come, Stoltenberg added.

At least eight people have been killed and four wounded in Russian artillery shelling in the eastern Ukrainian town of Toretsk in Donetsk region, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

The shelling hit a public transport stop where people had gathered. Three children were among the wounded.

Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, said the attack was “another terrorist act” by Russia, and repeated his calls for other nations to declare Russia a state sponsor of terror.

Russia has previously denied targeting civilians and has rejected allegations of war crimes.

At least five people were killed and six injured when Ukrainian forces shelled Donetsk, a Ukrainian city held by Russian-backed separatists, officials in the breakaway region said.

Footage on social media showed bodies, some blown apart, lying beside a road in central Donetsk. Blood stained the pavement.

The self-claimed Donetsk People’s Republic said in a statement that five people had been killed and six injured in the city’s Voroshilovsky district.