Russia’s war in Ukraine

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev attends a podium discussion on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 8, 2014 in Berlin, Germany.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union before its dissolution, has died in Moscow at the age of 91, according to official statements.?

Gorbachev, whose tumultuous rule was associated with the terms of perestroika and glasnost — reform and openness — died after a long illness, according to official Russian news agencies.

Russian President Vladmir Putin expressed his deepest condolences over Gorbachev’s death, Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told RIA Novosti.?

Putin will send a message tomorrow to Gorbachev’s family and friends, the Russian new agency added.?

Here’s a look back at the life and times of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev:

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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi in Kyiv on August 30.

As the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegation arrives in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said their mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is important “and we’re doing everything we can to make it happen safely and at full capacity.”

“Unfortunately, Russia does not stop provocations precisely in those directions from which the mission is supposed to arrive at the station. But I hope that the IAEA mission will be able to start its work,” he claimed.

Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of daily attacks using rockets and artillery in the vicinity of the plant.

Some context: Zelensky met with the IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday, according to a press officer with Zelensky’s office.?The delegation plans on visiting the power plant later this week.

Zelensky urged the IAEA to do more than inspect the plant, saying that strategic decisions were required “regarding the urgent demilitarization of the station, the withdrawal of all, any, military personnel of the Russian Federation with explosives, with any kind of weapon.”

The president insisted that the area should become a demilitarized zone and that there should be a transition of the plant to full control of the Ukrainian state.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken of the military’s efforts to take the battle to Russian forces and says the occupiers “can do only two things: run away or surrender.”

In his daily video message, Zelensky said the armed forces and security services were?doing “everything possible and impossible so that every Russian serviceman will necessarily feel the Ukrainian response to this terrible terror that Russia has brought to our land.”

He was speaking as a Ukrainian offensive in the south got underway. Few details have emerged about its goals and timeline, nor about Ukrainian advances in the Kherson region.

Zelensky promised that “Throughout the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, from Crimea to the Kharkiv region, the Russian army does not have and will not have a single safe base, a single quiet place. Our defenders will destroy all warehouses, headquarters of the occupiers, and their equipment, no matter where they are located.”

Zelensky also addressed the people of Crimea, saying, “Please stay as far as possible from Russian military facilities. Do not be near Russian bases and military airfields, report to the special services of Ukraine all the information you know about the occupiers so that the liberation of Crimea can happen faster.”

State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel confirmed that the US believes Russia has received unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Iran and “intends to use these?Iranian?UAVs, which can conduct air to surface attacks, electronic warfare, and targeting on the battlefield in Ukraine.”

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand?reported Monday evening?that the US assessed that Russia was in possession of the?UAVs.

A top Kremlin official is leading Russia’s efforts to stage sham referenda in occupied parts of Ukraine, US State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Tuesday.

“Preparations for the sham referenda are being led by the first deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, Sergey Kiriyenko,” Patel said during a phone briefing.?

Kiriyenko was sanctioned in March 2021 and sanctioned again in February 2022 — two days before the Russian war in Ukraine began — in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics as “independent.”

Patel reiterated that the US assesses that Russia could hold sham referenda in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and parts of Kharkiv. They “could take place in the coming weeks,” he said.

“We expect Russia to manipulate the results of these referenda in order to falsely claim that the Ukrainian people want to join Russia,” he said.?

Wind turbines rotate in the Baltic Sea between the islands of Rügen and Bornholm, belonging to Denmark on August 29, 2020.

European countries bordering the?Baltic?Sea?agreed on Tuesday to ramp up offshore wind energy seven-fold by 2030, as Europe seeks to wean itself off Russian gas supplies.??

The agreement was signed at the?Baltic?Sea?Summit in?Copenhagen, which was hosted by Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and government heads from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Organizers said the summit’s aim was to strengthen the EU’s independence from Russian gas, improve energy security and boost the?Baltic?Sea’s offshore energy potential.

More on the agreement: Initial projects announced include a hybrid offshore wind park between Estonia and Latvia, a cross-border district heating grid between Germany and Poland and a project to produce renewable electricity in Italy, Spain and Germany for conversion, transport and use of green hydrogen in the Netherlands and Germany, according to a news release?issued by the European Commission.

During a news conference following the summit, the European Commission president also addressed concerns over rising energy prices across Europe.

“The real driver for the increase of electricity prices is somewhere else, that is gas, and mainly Russian gas that has been manipulated by Putin. Putin who uses gas as a weapon and you can see that in the figures,” she said, adding the electricity market is no longer functioning because of Putin “who is systematically trying to destroy it and to manipulate it.”

These are some of the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi ahead of a planned visit this week by a delegation of the IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

As Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of shelling the area around the plant, the European Union is donating 5.5 million potassium iodide tablets to Ukraine to safeguard people from potential radiation exposure in what the EU Commission called a “preventative safety measure.”

Ukrainian southern counteroffensive: US President Joe Biden’s administration has been helping the Ukrainian military prepare for its now-ongoing counteroffensive for the last couple of months by fulfilling specific arms requests leading up to the launch this week, according to an administration official.

Ukrainian officials also said that the damage to bridges across the Dnipro river in the Kherson region means that Russian forces are unable to cross the river to assist units on the front lines further north.

Kharkiv strikes: At least four people were killed and nine others wounded in shelling of central Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — on Tuesday, according to Oleh Synehubov, the head of the regional military administration.?

Rssian gas supplies: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, while saying that Russia is using gas as a strategy in the war against Ukraine, assured Germans that “we can deal quite well with the threats that are coming our way” in terms of the gas supply for the coming winter months. On Aug. 19, Gazprom announced?unscheduled maintenance orders?onNord Stream 1 from Aug. 31-Sept. 2, which will suspend gas flow. Meanwhile, French industrial energy group Engie said that Russian gas company Gazprom will reduce its supply of gas to France, effective today.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shakes hands with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi in Kyiv on August 30.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky met with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday, according to a press officer with Zelensky’s office.?

The meeting came as Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of shelling the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ahead of a planned visit by a delegation of the IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, later in the week.

Zelensky told Grossi that the IAEA’s mission in Ukraine is “urgent” and that Ukraine wants its team to do more than carry out an inspection at the plant.

Zelensky said that he hoped the delegation would “find an opportunity, thanks to our special services, thanks to the security corridors, to get to the station, and do the best to avoid all those threats on a global scale.”

He blamed the Russian military for the “creation of great risks, regarding explosions, regarding the failure to work of the nuclear reactors, regarding the risks of disconnecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant units from our network, and regarding the risks of the heating season for our citizens.”?

Zelensky urged the IAEA to do more than inspect the plant, saying that strategic decisions were required “regarding the urgent demilitarization of the station, the withdrawal of all, any, military personnel of the Russian Federation with explosives, with any kind of weapon.”

Zelensky insisted that the area should become a demilitarized zone and that there should be a transition of the plant to full control of the Ukrainian state.

The Biden administration has been helping the Ukrainian military prepare for its now ongoing counteroffensive for the last couple of months by fulfilling specific arms requests, an administration official says.

Ukraine had been asking the US for weapons specifically suited to their planned southern counter offensive in the months leading up to the launch this week, the official says.

The US fulfilled many of those requests — including additional ammunition, artillery and Javelins — over the course of several presidential drawdown assistance packages provided to Ukraine over the last two months, the official said.?

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and top US General Mark Milley have routinely talked to their Ukrainian counterparts to determine what specific weapon needs depending on Ukraine’s battlefield goals.?

The European Union Parliament in Brussels on June 22.

All European Union member states agree on launching the “work necessary to define the parameters for a new military assistance mission for Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday.?

There are “many training initiatives on the way” for the Ukrainian military, he said after a meeting of EU defense ministers in Prague.

The top EU diplomat also said that the Ukrainian defense minister had shown the EU a list of short-, medium- and long-term training activities that country’s military needs.?

“We need to ensure the coherence of this effort,” he said. “It’s clear that we need to be quick and ambitious, demonstrate added value, flexibility, once again based on the needs of Ukrainian armed forces.”

A picture taken on July 21 shows a car moving past a crater on a bridge across the Dnipro river, near Kherson, caused by a Ukrainian rocket strike.

Ukrainian officials say that the damage to bridges across the Dnipro river in the Kherson region means that Russian forces are unable to cross the river to assist units on the front lines further north.

“The enemy is trying to pull up reserves from the Left (south) bank,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South, said at a briefing Tuesday.

That had proved impossible, she added, “because we carefully and precisely worked on these bridges: they are the main transport arteries across the Dnipro, they became impassable for heavy equipment.”?

“They may continue to try to set up a ferry or pontoon crossing, but the whole area where it can be deployed is also under our fire control and will be hit,” Humeniuk added.

There were further strikes reported on the main Antonivskiy road bridge connecting southern Kherson with Kherson city early Tuesday.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock, attends the closed meeting of the German Cabinet at Schloss Meseberg, Germany on August 30.

Germany would want to see Russian persecuted opposition members excluded from a possible European Union-wide visa ban for Russian citizens, German Foreign Minister?Annalena Baerbock said on the side of a German cabinet retreat on Tuesday.?

Berlin is ready to suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Russia and stop issuing multiple visas or multiple-years visas, Baerbock said.?

During a two-day informal gathering in Prague, EU defense and foreign ministers are considering further measures against Russia, and one proposal put forward by Eastern European countries is to ban Russian tourists from entering the EU.

The German government wants to enable “persecuted people in Russia to leave the country very quickly,” Baerbock said.?

The visa opportunity should offer refuge not only for “very well-known journalists or very well-known opposition members, but we must also leave the possibility for students who have the courage at their university to inform themselves elsewhere,” the minister said.

“We must prepare ourselves for the fact that Russia will continue to pose a threat to our security and our freedom in the near future and that at the same time we cannot view the entire security policy solely in terms of this Russian war of aggression,” she added.?

Pope?Francis?meets with Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican, Andriy Yurash, during a private audience at the Vatican on April 7.

In a Vatican statement, Pope Francis today issued by far his strongest words yet on Russia’s war in Ukraine, calling it “morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious.”

The Vatican’s daily news bulletin called for everyone to pray to “rebuild peace” and the “defense of human life and the values connected to it, and not as political positions.”

In the bulletin, the Pope also responded to some of the criticism he’s faced due to his recent comments concerning the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian ultranationalist firebrand Alexander Dugin.?

Dugina was killed after a bomb planted in a car she was driving went off in the outskirts of Moscow on Aug. 20.

Last week, the Pope said: “I think of that poor girl who was blown up by a bomb that was under her car seat in Moscow. The innocent pay for war, the innocent.”

The Russian?Federal Security Service (FSB)?have blamed Ukrainian special services for the murder of Dugina; however,?Ukraine has denied any involvement, calling the FSB claims fiction.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted last week by expressing disappointment over the Pope’s statement, saying it “unjustly” equates “the aggressor and the victim.”

Communal employees work on a roof after it was damaged during a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine on August 30.

At least four people were killed and nine others wounded in shelling of central Kharkiv on Tuesday, according to Oleh Synehubov, the head of the regional military administration.?

“All emergency services are working on the spot” to help those injured, Synehubov wrote on his official Telegram channel.

Ukraine and Russia continued to accuse each other on Tuesday of shelling the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine ahead of a planned visit by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expected later in the week.?

The Russian authorities, who are in control of the plant and the nearby city of Enerhodar, reported artillery strikes early Tuesday morning close to a spent fuel storage building. The claim was made on the authorities’ official Telegram account and put the blame on Ukraine.

A statement from the Russian defense ministry repeated the allegation and noted that “the radiation situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant remains normal.”?

Kyiv again blamed Moscow for attacking the area around the power plant.?

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine,?alleged in a tweet?that Russia, “is deliberately shelling corridors for [the] IAEA mission to reach ZNPP [the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant],” and reiterated Ukrainian demands for Russian troops to withdraw from the plant.?

CNN is unable to verify who is responsible for the shelling, as both sides have repeatedly accused each other.?

The head of the IAEA, who is leading the organization’s mission to Ukraine, has said that “military actions near to such a large nuclear facility could lead to very serious consequences.”?

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists in a briefing Tuesday that he hoped the IAEA visit will proceed.

“We hope that this mission will take place as agreed and discussed. I repeat once again: We are interested in this mission and have been waiting for it for a long time,” he said. ?

Russian gas company Gazprom will reduce its supply of gas to France, effective today, French industrial energy group Engie announced in a statement on Tuesday morning.

The decrease in supply is “due to a disagreement between the parties on the application of contracts,” according to Engie.

Engie also said these actions won’t affect supply.

The company had “already secured the necessary volumes to ensure the supply of its customers and of its own needs” and it has implemented a series of “measures to significantly reduce the direct financial and physical impacts that could result from an interruption of gas deliveries by Gazprom,” it said.

Russian tourists have their passport checked at the Nuijamaa border crossing in Finland?on July 28.

European officials are gathering for a two-day informal meeting in Prague to discuss the situation in Ukraine and how European Union countries can support the country in terms of military and social support.

During the gathering, EU defense and foreign ministers will also consider further measures against Russia stemming from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine six months ago.

One proposal put forward by Eastern European countries is to ban Russian tourists from entering the EU.

“In a situation where people in Ukraine are being tortured, murdered, and terrorised, Russian citizens should not be enjoying tourist trips to Europe,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in a statement.

“It is important that we limit the opportunities for Russian citizens to travel in Europe,” the statement said.

Reaching a consensus among the 27 EU countries may be difficult, said Artis Pabriks, Latvia’s deputy prime minister and defense minister.

The Russian government?will take measures if the EU decided to ban visas for Russian nationals, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists Tuesday.?

“This is a very serious decision that can be directed against our citizens. And such decisions cannot remain unanswered,” he said, adding that a response from Russia will reflect what “protects the interests of our citizens.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz briefs the media prior to a two days cabinet meeting at the German government guest house in Meseberg, Germany, on August 30.

Germany is better prepared for winter “than was foreseeable a few months ago” when it comes to gas supply,?German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said?Tuesday.?

“We can deal quite well with the threats that are coming our way from Russia,” Scholz said ahead of a cabinet retreat.

Russia is using gas as a strategy in the war against Ukraine, he claimed.?

Germany has been building liquid gas terminals on its northern coasts “at a fabulous pace,” he added.

The German pipeline operator Gascade announced plans Tuesday to connect a new liquified natural gas terminal in the northeastern town of Lubmin to the German gas grid by the end of 2022.?The re-gasification unit at the terminal will connect Germany and Europe with long-distance pipelines to the network via a pipeline that is hundreds of meters long.

Germany had started filling gas storages to prepare for winter earlier than in previous years because of fears of curbed or suspended gas deliveries from Russia.?

Some background: The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was interrupted for scheduled maintenance in July. On Aug. 19, Gazprom announced unscheduled maintenance orders from August 31-Sept. 2, which will suspend gas flow.?The Nord Stream pipeline had already been running at just a fifth of its capacity.

As of Monday, gas storage facilities were filled to nearly 83% capacity, according to the federal network agency.?

Germany has received gas from Norway and the Netherlands, as well as via western European ports.

The European Union is donating 5.5 million potassium iodide tablets to Ukraine to safeguard people from potential radiation exposure, in what the EU Commission called a “preventative safety measure” on Tuesday.

The tablets would be used in “limited scenarios to avoid that inhaled or swallowed radioactive iodine is absorbed by the thyroid,” the commission said in a statement.

The tablets were requested by the Ukrainian government to “increase the level of protection” around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to the commission.

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency has arrived in the Ukrainian capital ahead of a planned visit to the power plant in southeastern Ukraine later this week.

Members of the IAEA delegation were seen by CNN at their hotel in Kyiv early Tuesday.

Ukrainian officials say the country’s forces have broken through Russian frontlines after launching a counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region, and 14 United Nations nuclear experts have arrived in Kyiv before a planned visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Here are the latest headlines:

A Ukrainian soldier patrols a frontline checkpoint in Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine on August 19.

Ukrainian troops have broken through Russian defenses in “several” areas of the frontline near the city of Kherson, claimed a presidential adviser late Monday.

“[The Ukrainian Armed Forces] have broken through the frontline in several sectors,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a video interview posted on YouTube.

His comments came after Ukraine started a counteroffensive aimed at recapturing Russian-controlled territory in the south of the country.

Earlier Monday, a Ukrainian military source told CNN that Ukrainian troops had taken four villages back from Russian occupation in the south near Kherson.

Moscow on Monday acknowledged Kyiv’s operation in Ukraine’s south, but said the Ukrainian troops “suffered heavy losses” and “failed miserably” in their “attempted” offensive.?

Arestovych also claimed that Ukrainian forces were shelling ferry crossing points that Moscow is using to supply Russian-occupied territory on the west bank of the Dnipro river in the Kherson Region.

“We suppress their attempts to supply their groups on the west bank [of the Dnipro River],” he said. “We strike at reserves, including reserves that are on the east bank and are trying to cross, and at ferry crossings as well.”

Serhii Khlan, an adviser to the head of the Kherson region military administration, said in a video interview posted on YouTube on Tuesday that Ukraine had hit multiple crossings over the Dnipro River, making them unusable.

Satellite imagery shows holes in the roof of?Zaporizhzhia?nuclear power plant, on Monday.

New satellite images from Maxar Technologies show four holes in the roof of a building close to where at least three Russian armored personnel carriers are being stored at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The Russian-appointed leader for the?Zaporizhzhia?region, Vladimir Rogov, claimed that the holes were the result of a Ukrainian military strike on the complex.?

Rogov published photos showing one of the holes on his Telegram channel.

CNN has geolocated and confirmed the authenticity of the photos, but not the claims that the holes were the result of a Ukrainian military strike.

The Ukrainian government has repeatedly denied that they have conducted military strikes at or near the plant in recent weeks.

In the satellite images, at least three Russian armored personnel carriers are?seen sitting underneath a large structure with pipes, which?feed?from the building into all six of the nuclear reactors.

Russia has repeatedly claimed that they do not have any “heavy weaponry” at the nuclear power plant.?The holes in the roof of the building are almost 500 feet (120 meters) away from one of the nuclear reactors at the plant.

CNN has asked Ukrainian authorities whether they conducted a military strike at the plant, but?have not yet received a response.

CNN has also reached out to Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear power plant authority, for comment and?to inquire on what the building’s purpose is.

The satellite image also shows a fire burning just north of the plant.

The United States assesses that Russia is now in possession of weapons-capable Iranian drones that they will likely deploy on the battlefield in Ukraine, Biden administration officials tell CNN.

The Russians picked up the drones from an Iranian airfield earlier this month and transported them back to Russia in cargo planes in mid-August, the officials said.?

Russian officials began training on the drones in Iran late last month,?CNN previously reported, and the US now believes that Russia has officially purchased and transferred the Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series drones – the Shahed-129 and Shahed-191 – back to Russia, likely for use in the war in Ukraine.?

Both types of UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are capable of carrying precision guided munitions and can be used for surveillance.

Russian operators are still training on the drones inside Iran, the officials said, and the US believes that Russia intends to import hundreds of them to use for air-to-surface attacks, electronic warfare, and targeting inside Ukraine.?

The introduction of the Iranian drones could have a significant impact on the battlefield as Russia looks to blunt the impact of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) that the US and its allies have provided to Ukraine.

The HIMARS have a range of 49 miles and have enabled Ukraine to attack targets behind Russian front lines.?

The Washington Post first reported that the drones had been transferred to Russia.

The Biden administration began warning in July that Russia was looking to purchase the drones amid acute supply shortages stemming from the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions that have stymied new production efforts.??

Satellite imagery?revealed that month showed that a Russian delegation had visited an airfield in central Iran at least twice since June to examine weapons-capable drones.

The news of the drone transfers comes as the Biden administration has expressed cautious optimism about a possible deal to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

The deal’s detractors say that a new deal will result in sanctions relief for Iran – and in turn, a financial windfall that could enable Iran’s malign activities throughout the region and beyond.?

White House officials have insisted, however, that the decision to re-enter the nuclear deal should be motivated only by the need to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and should not be influenced by Iranian actions that fall outside the scope of their nuclear program.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his nightly address on Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to “chase” Russian troops to the border in his nightly television address Monday.

“The occupiers must know: we will chase them to the border. To our border, which line has not been changed,” he said.

Zelensky was speaking after Ukraine started a counteroffensive aimed at recapturing Russian-controlled territory in the south of the country.?

“If they do not hear me – they will have to deal with our defenders, who will not stop until they free everything that belongs to Ukraine.”

The first grain shipment from Ukraine to Africa since Russia’s invasion began more than six months ago has docked in Djibouti, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed Tuesday.

After 14 days at sea, the shipment of 23,000 metric tons of wheat arrived on the MV Brave Commander in the Horn of Africa, and will be used to support the WFP’s humanitarian response in the region, where over 20 million people face hunger.

The WFP says people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia face severe hunger as the Horn of Africa experiences some of the driest conditions its seen in decades.?The drought is the worst in 40 years for Ethiopia, according to?the UN.?

Some context: Since the first days of the war, Ukraine’s southern ports had been blocked by Russia, stopping Ukrainian grain from traveling to the many countries that rely on it. A UN-brokered agreement struck on July 23?promised to unblock ports on the Black Sea?to allow the safe passage of grain and oilseeds, following routes identified by Ukrainian maritime pilots to avoid mines, and with stops in Istanbul to ensure weapons are not being smuggled back into the country.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south of the country will be a “slow operation to grind the enemy,” according to Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

Some context: Ukrainian officials said Monday that military operations to?retake Russian-held areas?of the south?are underway, with a?source telling CNN?that Ukraine’s troops had taken back four villages near the city of Kherson. The effort comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine has passed the six-month mark.

A team of 14 experts from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has arrived in Kyiv ahead of their planned visit to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine later this week.

Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegation were seen by CNN reporters at their hotel in the Ukrainian capital early Tuesday.

The visit comes?amid renewed shelling at the facility and mounting fears over a potential nuclear accident.

The mission is headed by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said Monday.

Ukrainian forces launched an attack on Monday at the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka in southern Ukraine, knocking out its electricity and water supply, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti, who cited a Moscow-appointed local authority.??

RIA quoted the head of civil-military administration in the town, Vladimir Leontyev, as saying the consequences of the strike “will probably be terrible.”

After the city was left without electricity and water supply, authorities managed to outfit the hospitals with generators. They will start delivering water in the morning, Leontyev added.

Destruction following a missile strike in Mykolaiv, on Monday. Ukrainian forces have started to retake the southern city of Kherson, which is currently occupied by Russian troops, a local government official said on Monday.

Ukrainian troops have taken four villages back from Russian occupation in the south near the city of Kherson, a Ukrainian military source tells CNN. Their main “target” is Kherson, the source added.

“The main direction of the attack was on Pravdyne. We hit their infantry from the DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LNR (Luhansk People’s Republic), and they fled. The Russian landing force fled after them,” the source told CNN.

“We have now liberated four villages. Their first line of defense has been broken through in three places,”?the military source said.?

The source said the village names are Nova Dmytrivka, Arkhanhel’s’ke, Tomyna Balka and Pravdyne.

“Many of them were killed and captured, and a lot of [Russian] military vehicles [were destroyed].”

“We’ll see how it goes from here. Our target is Kherson,” the source said.?

A “long-awaited”?Ukrainian counteroffensive?against Russian forces is underway in southern Ukraine to retake Moscow-controlled territory, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told CNN on Monday.?

The counteroffensive comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine has passed its six-month mark, with US assessments indicating that Russia has been able to deploy fewer units to the front lines than initially thought, according to a senior US official.?

On Monday morning, Ukraine indicated that actions were underway.

“Ukrainian armed forces have started the offensive actions in several directions on the South front towards liberating the occupied territories,” Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Operational Command South, told CNN.

“All the details will be available after the operation is fulfilled,” she added.

Ukrainian forces?have begun “shaping” operations in southern Ukraine to prepare the battlefield for a significant Ukrainian counteroffensive, two senior US officials briefed on the intelligence told CNN.

Shaping operations are standard military practice prior to an offensive and involve striking weapons systems, command and control, ammunition depots and other targets to prepare the battlefield for planned advances.

The US believes the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has long been anticipated, will include a combination of air and ground operations.

Ukraine indicated Monday morning that the actions were underway.

The plans come as Russia’s war in Ukraine has passed its six-month mark, with US assessments indicating that Russia has been able to deploy fewer units to the front lines than initially thought, according to a senior US official.

Read the full story here.