Russia-Ukraine live: ‘No talks if Moscow holds referendum’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that if Russia proceeded with referendums in occupied areas of his country on joining Russia, there could be no talks with Ukraine or its international allies.

“If the occupiers proceed along the path of pseudo-referendums they will close for themselves any chance of talks with Ukraine and the free world, which the Russian side will clearly need at some point,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Russian and Ukrainian officials held several sessions of talks soon after Russian forces launched their invasion of Ukraine. But no meetings have been held since late March, with each side blaming the other for the halt to contacts.

Pope Francis has welcomed the departure from Ukrainian Black Sea ports of the first ships carrying grain previously blockaded by Russia, saying the breakthrough could be a model for dialogue to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

The first ship, the Razoni, set off on August 1, with seven more following through Sunday, thanks to a grain and fertiliser export deal between Moscow and Kyiv brokered by Turkey and the United Nations last month.

It came after UN warnings of possible outbreaks of famine in some areas of the world due to a halt in grain shipments from Ukraine that had squeezed supplies and sent prices soaring.

Authorities from Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, and the United Nations have inspected ships exporting grain from Ukrainian ports.

As part of a recent grain export deal signed by the three countries and the UN, the Liberian-flagged ship Osprey S anchored off the north of Istanbul. The ship is scheduled to depart for the Chornomorsk port of Ukraine.

Also, the Maltese-flagged ship Rojen, carrying 13,000 tonnes of corn from Chornomorsk en route to the United Kingdom, also anchored off Istanbul on Saturday evening before getting inspected on Sunday.

In addition to the two ships, the teams also inspected the Turkish-flagged Polarnet vessel that arrived off the coast of Istanbul with 12,000 tonnes of corn.

Former US diplomat Bill Richardson has said that he was “optimistic” about efforts to negotiate a “two for two” prisoner swap with Russia that would free US basketball star Brittney Griner and another American.

Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations, has negotiated the release of several Americans held in other countries. Reports last month said he was expected to travel to Russia for talks over Griner, who on Thursday was sentenced to nine years in prison on a drug charge after vape cartridges containing cannabis were found in her luggage.

While insisting on Sunday that he is only a “catalyst” in any negotiations, Richardson’s mention of a “two-for-two” swap including Griner suggested inside knowledge.

“My view is, I’m optimistic,” he told the ABC news programme This Week.

Ukraine is investigating almost 26,000 suspected war-crimes cases committed since Russia’s February 24 invasion and has charged 135 people, its chief war crimes prosecutor has told the Reuters news agency.

Of those charged, around 15 are in Ukrainian custody and the remaining 120 remain at large, Yuriy Bilousov, head of the war crimes department of the Prosecutor General’s office, said in an interview in the capital Kyiv.

Thirteen cases have been submitted to courts and seven verdicts have been issued, he said.

UK-based rights group Amnesty International has apologised for “distress and anger” caused by a report accusing Ukraine of endangering civilians that infuriated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and triggered the resignation of Amnesty’s Kyiv office head.

The rights group published the report on Thursday saying the presence of Ukrainian troops in residential areas heightened risks to civilians during Russia’s invasion.

“Amnesty International deeply regrets the distress and anger that our press release on the Ukrainian military’s fighting tactics has caused,” it said in an email to the Reuters news agency.

“Amnesty International’s priority in this and in any conflict is ensuring that civilians are protected. Indeed, this was our sole objective when releasing this latest piece of research. While we fully stand by our findings, we regret the pain caused.”

The first cargo vessel since the Russian invasion has arrived at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Chornomorsk for the future transportation of grain to international markets, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure.

Earlier on Sunday, four ships carrying Ukrainian foodstuffs sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports as part of a deal to unblock the country’s sea exports.

President Zelenskyy has called for a stronger international response to what he described as Russian “nuclear terror” after shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

During a phone call with European Council President Charles Michel, Zelenskyy called for sanctions to be imposed on the Russian nuclear industry and nuclear fuel, the Ukrainian leader wrote on Twitter.

Ukraine’s state nuclear power company said earlier that a worker had been wounded when Russian forces shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Saturday evening.

Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom says a worker was wounded when Russian forces shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant again.

The site of the plant’s dry storage facility, where 174 containers with spent nuclear fuel are stored in the open air, was hit by rockets, Energoatom said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Zaporizhzhia plant was captured by Russian forces in the opening stage of the war but is still run by Ukrainian technicians.

Tariq Rauf, nuclear arms control specialist, says Moscow may have captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – to provide electricity to Ukrainian regions that it occupies.

“The 15 power plants in Ukraine today together supply 50 percent of the electricity needed by Ukraine. Russia has occupied and captured the Zaporizhzhia power plant, I think, to provide electricity to the Eastern parts of Ukraine that Russia has occupied and captured during this aggression,” Rauf told Al Jazeera.

“We really do not know what the situation is at Zaporizhzhia power plant. Why will the Ukrainian shell it when they have their own people there? And similarly, why will the Russian shell it when they have their soldiers and technical experts there? IAEA need to be given the permission to send a technical team to find out what the facts really are on the ground,” he said.

“Apparently, the containment structures of these power plants can withstand certain amount of direct damage. So, it depends on the type of hit. I think an artillery shell would be unlikely to penetrate it. But again, these are things that we do not need to test. We need to make sure that this never happens,” he added.

The scheduled arrival on Sunday of the first grain ship to leave Ukraine and cross the Black Sea under a wartime deal has been delayed, a Lebanese minister and the Ukraine embassy said.

The cause of the delay was not immediately clear and MarineTraffic, which monitors vessel traffic and the locations of ships at sea, showed the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni at anchor in the Mediterranean Sea near Turkey.

Lebanon’s Transport Minister Ali Hamie tweeted that the ship “that was supposed, according to what was rumoured, to reach Tripoli port in Lebanon” changed its status.

The ship left Odesa last Monday with Ukrainian corn and later passed inspection in Turkey. It was supposed to arrive in the northern port of Tripoli at about 10am (07:00 GMT) on Sunday. According to MarineTraffic, the ship on Saturday changed its status to “order”, meaning the ship was waiting for someone to buy the corn.

The Ukrainian embassy in Beirut said the arrival of the ship has been postponed, adding that an “update for the ceremony will be sent later when we get information about exact day and time of the arrival of the ship”.

Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has been re-elected for a second term as president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), defeating a Ukrainian who had criticised him over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

Dvorkovich, deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2018, received 157 votes in his favour and 16 against at FIDE’s general assembly in Chennai, India, the international governing body said.

Dvorkovich, FIDE president since October 2018, ran against Ukraine’s Andrii Baryshpolets, who criticised him for his ties with the Russian leadership as a former high-ranking official.

Ahead of the vote, Dvorkovich argued that he had taken a stance on the situation in Ukraine.

“I took a strong position on the tragic events in Ukraine as well as supported FIDE Council decisions regarding scaling down Russia’s involvement in FIDE,” he said.

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• Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 165

Ukraine is supplied largely by Western weapons and has little ammunition to spare.

So, its military has teamed up with a video game maker. In the past month, soldiers have been training on virtual firing ranges.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren reports from Kyiv, Ukraine.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 165th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events from Saturday, August 6.

UK’s defence ministry says the poor performance of Russia’s armed forces during its invasion of Ukraine has been costly to its military leadership.

In an intelligence update posted on Twitter, the ministry said it was highly likely that the poor showing resulted “in the dismissal of at least six Russian commanders”.

“The commanders of Russia’s Eastern and Western Military Districts have highly likely lost their commands,” the statement said.

“These dismissals are compounded by at least 10 Russian generals killed on the battlefield in Ukraine. The cumulative effect on consistency of command is likely contributing to Russian tactical and operational difficulties.”

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov says the second caravan of ships with Ukrainian agriculture products sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday as part of a deal to unblock Ukrainian sea exports.

He tweeted that four bulk carriers – Mustafa Necati, Star Helena, Glory and Riva Wind – were loaded with almost 170,000 tonnes of grain.

The first four ships left Ukraine last week under the frame agreement signed by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukrainian infrastructure minister, says a foreign-flagged ship arrived in Ukraine on Saturday for the first time since the war started in February and will be loaded with grain.

Kubrakov said the Barbados-flagged general cargo ship, Fulmar S, was in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk.

“We are doing [everything] possible to ensure that our ports can receive and handle more vessels. In particular, we plan to reach the level of at least three to five vessels per day in two weeks,” he wrote on Facebook.

Ukraine eventually aims to ship out three million tonnes a month from its Black Sea ports, he said. Roughly 20 million tonnes of grain from last year’s crops are still stuck in the country.

Vitaly Gura, an official with the Russian occupying authorities in Ukraine’s Kherson region, has died after an assassination attempt, local Moscow-backed authorities say.

Gura, the deputy chief of the Kakhovka district, “died of his injuries”, local official Katerina Gubareva said on Telegram.

He was attacked at home on Saturday morning and was gravely wounded by bullets, a source in the Russian-backed administration told TASS news agency.

Kakhovka is about 80km (50 miles) east of Kherson city.

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog says he is “alarmed” by Friday’s shelling at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest such facility.

In a statement, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the strikes represented “the latest in a long line of increasingly alarming reports” and underlined “the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond”.

On Saturday, the plant’s operator said Friday’s shelling had “seriously damaged” a station containing nitrogen and oxygen and an “auxiliary building”.

Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the attacks.