A team of nuclear experts has traveled to Zaporizhzhia amid international concern over the possibility of an accident or radiation leak at the nuclear power plant there. Envoys from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) left Kyiv on Wednesday morning for the plant in southeastern Ukraine, a Reuters witness from the scene said. UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi said at a briefing in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform: “We are finally leaving after six months of efforts. The IAEA is heading to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. As you know, we have a very important task there: to work and examine the real situation there, to help stabilize the situation as much as possible.”
However, UN nuclear inspectors may not visit the facility until Thursday. A Reuters reporter traveling in a convoy with the team said they were likely to spend the night in the city of Zaporizhzhia before visiting the plant, which is in Russian-controlled territory.
Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately bombing the corridors to prevent IAEA inspectors from visiting the plant. Mykhailo Podolyak, a key presidential adviser, said Russia was trying to force the IAEA mission through Crimea and parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions temporarily occupied by Moscow’s forces.
Russia has halted gas supplies through a major pipeline to Europe, citing the need for maintenance on its only remaining compressor, raising the prospect of recession and energy rationing across the region. The disruption of Nord Stream 1 means no gas will reach Germany between 1:00 GMT on Wednesday and 1:00 GMT on Saturday, September 3, according to Russian state energy company Gazprom. Data from operator Nord Stream 1’s website, cited by Reuters, showed flows at zero at 4-5am CET (2-3am GMT) on Wednesday. European governments fear Moscow could extend the shutdown in retaliation for imposed Western sanctions.
The UN’s cultural agency has said it supports Ukraine’s bid to add its port city of Odesa to Unesco’s list of protected world heritage sites. The historic center of Odesa has already been hit by artillery fire and is only a few tens of kilometers from the front line, the agency said.
Ukraine is continuing its offensive against Russian forces in southern Ukraine, pushing back the front line “some distance in places”, according to British intelligence. The full report released by the UK Ministry of Defense added that Russia “continues to accelerate attempts to generate new reinforcements for Ukraine”.
Boris Johnson has paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who has died in Moscow aged 91, describing him as a man “who changed the world and certainly changed it for the better”. Johnson said the Kremlin was “intent on undoing the good” of Gorbachev and trying to “recreate that Soviet empire” with its war in Ukraine, PA Media reports.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive to recapture Kherson will be a “slow operation to crush the enemy,” Presidential Adviser Oleksiy Arestovych has said. “Of course, many would want a full-scale offensive with news of our military capturing a settlement within an hour,” he wrote. “But we don’t fight like that… Funds are limited.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said heavy fighting continued in “almost the entire territory” of Kherson. A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command, Natalia Humeniuk, said Ukrainian forces had managed to damage bridges linking Kherson across the river, making them “impassable for heavy machinery”.
A Moscow-based leader from occupied Kherson has reportedly fled to Russia. When asked by the Guardian about his location, Kirill Stremousov said he was currently “travelling around Russian cities, meeting different people for work”.
A former head of Britain’s secret intelligence service, MI6, welcomed Ukraine’s counter-attacks in Kherson, saying it was a key moment in the war. Sir Alex Younger told the BBC that the fight from Kyiv showed that the two opposing forces had “reached some sort of balance, which is an unexpected and frankly welcome situation”.
According to the Washington Post, Ukraine is using wooden decoys of advanced US rocket systems to trick Russia into wasting its missiles. Decoy versions of US-supplied rocket launcher systems lured at least 10 Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, prompting Ukraine to further increase its production of replicas in an effort to lure Moscow into firing its expensive long-range missiles against dummy targets, the publication said.
At least five people were killed and 12 wounded in the Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Zelenskiy said. “A Russian bombing of Kharkiv alone has claimed the lives of five people today, another 12 have been injured.”