For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EDT.
10:01 p.m.:
8:17 p.m.: A cargo ship carrying 3,000 metric tons of corn from Ukraine under a U.N.-brokered export deal drifted aground in Turkey's Bosphorus strait on Thursday, halting shipping through Istanbul, according to the governor's office and a shipping firm.
The Istanbul governor's office said the 173-meter Lady Zehma was safely grounded and anchored after a rudder failure around 1800 GMT. No one was hurt and coast guards were attending, it said.
Earlier this week the Joint Coordination Center, run by the United Nations, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey after a grains-export deal was reached, said the Lady Zehma was cleared to depart Ukraine's Chornomorsk port for Ravenna, Italy.
7:42 p.m.: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Moldova on Thursday that threatening the security of Russian troops in the breakaway region of Transdniestria risked triggering military confrontation with Moscow.
Russia has stationed peacekeeping troops in Transdniestria since the early 1990s, when an armed conflict saw pro-Russian separatists wrest most of the region from Moldovan control.
The government in Chisinau, stressing it was committed to peaceful dialog over the future of the region, said it would summon the acting Russian ambassador to make clear its position.
Russia says its army is there to maintain peace and stability, but Moldova wants Moscow to withdraw its forces.
6:40 p.m.: Two advisers to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have asked French oil major TotalEnergies to reject a $438.02 million dividend from one of its Russian holdings or to spend the money on Ukrainian reconstruction.
In a Sept. 1 letter, Zelenskyy advisers Oleg Ustenko and Mykhailo Podolyak asked CEO Patrick Pouyanne if TotalEnergies was planning to reject the dividend and - if not - called on the firm to establish a fund for Ukrainian war victims. The letter was seen by Reuters and first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
TotalEnergies did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
5:35 p.m.: The visit by U.N. experts to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant will be successful if it leads to the demilitarization of the facility, the head of Ukraine's state nuclear company said on Thursday.
Energoatom chief Petro Kotin, speaking to Reuters at a Ukrainian-controlled checkpoint on the road to the plant, said Ukrainian authorities were working to turn the plant's fifth reactor back on after it shut down because of shelling early Thursday.
4:46 p.m.: The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross called on Thursday for all fighting near the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia power plant to stop, warning that little could be done to respond in the event of a major accident there.
"In the event of a nuclear leak, it will be difficult if not impossible to provide humanitarian assistance ... and this is why fighting should stop," Robert Mardini told a news conference during a visit to Ukraine.
Mardini told Reuters that the Red Cross was not stockpiling or distributing iodine tablets to people near the plant to avoid sowing panic.
"We don't want to give a signal that this is inevitable," he said. "This is totally self-inflicted risk that should be totally stopped."
3:45 p.m.:
2:45 p.m.: Russia is calling for a United Nations Security Council meeting next week to discuss the situation regarding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer reported Thursday. Dmitry Polyanskiy, the First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the U.N., asked that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi brief the meeting participants on September 6.
2:30 p.m.: The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be able to attend the funeral service of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who died earlier this week, because of his work schedule, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Thursday that while Gorbachev will not be honored with a full state funeral, the service will have an honor guard and some other elements usually given during such a ceremony.
He added that Putin stopped by the Central Clinical Hospital earlier in the day to bid farewell to the man credited with helping end the Cold War, whose body remains there after he passed away at the age of 91 on August 30 following a prolonged illness.
"Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him to do that [attend the service] on September 3, which is why he decided to it today," Peskov said.
2:15 p.m.:
1:45 p.m.: One stood for freedom, openness, peace and closer ties with the outside world. The other is jailing critics, muzzling journalists, pushing his country deeper into isolation and waging Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
Such are history’s bookends between Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader, and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president.
In many ways, Gorbachev, who died Tuesday, unwittingly enabled Putin. The forces Gorbachev unleashed spun out of control, led to his downfall and the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Since coming to power in 1999, Putin has been taking a hard line that resulted in a near-complete reversal of Gorbachev’s reforms.
1:10 p.m.: Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, was shocked and bewildered by the Ukraine conflict in the months before he died and psychologically crushed in recent years by Moscow's worsening ties with Kyiv, his interpreter said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Pavel Palazhchenko, who worked with the late Soviet president for 37 years and was at his side at numerous U.S.-Soviet summits, spoke to Gorbachev a few weeks ago by phone and said he and others had been struck by how traumatized he was by events in Ukraine.
"It's not just the (special military) operation that started on February 24, but the entire evolution of relations between Russia and Ukraine over the past years that was really, really a big blow to him. It really crushed him emotionally and psychologically," Palazhchenko told Reuters in an interview.
"It was very obvious to us in our conversations with him that he was shocked and bewildered by what was happening (after Russian troops entered Ukraine in February) for all kinds of reasons. He believed not just in the closeness of the Russian and Ukrainian people, he believed that those two nations were intermingled."
Now 73, he is well placed to know the late politician's state of mind in the period before he died, having seen him in recent months and been in touch with Gorbachev's daughter Irina. Gorbachev, who was 91 when he died on Tuesday from an unspecified illness, had family connections to Ukraine, said Palazhchenko.
12:45 p.m.:
12:05 p.m.: International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has left the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom wrote on Telegram on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Energoatom wrote that five IAEA representatives will remain on the plant's territory, likely until September 3.
11:15 a.m.: As the war in Ukraine stretches into its seventh month, North Korea is hinting at its interest in sending construction workers to help rebuild Russian-occupied territories in the country’s east, The Associated Press reported.
The idea is openly endorsed by senior Russian officials and diplomats, who foresee a cheap and hard-working workforce that could be thrown into the “most arduous conditions,” a term Russia’s ambassador to North Korea used in a recent interview.
North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow recently met with envoys from two Russia-backed separatist territories in the Donbas region of Ukraine and expressed optimism about cooperation in the “field of labor migration,” citing his country’s easing pandemic border controls.
The talks came after North Korea in July became the only nation aside from Russia and Syria to recognize the independence of the territories, Donetsk and Luhansk, further aligning with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
10:25 a.m.:
9:50 a.m.: Russia on Thursday launched weeklong war games involving forces from China and other nations in a show of growing defense cooperation between Moscow and Beijing, as they both face tensions with the United States, The Associated Press reported.
The maneuvers are also intended to demonstrate that Moscow has sufficient military might for massive drills even as its troops are engaged in military action in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Vostok 2022 (East 2022) exercise will be held until Sept. 7 at seven firing ranges in Russia’s Far East and the Sea of Japan and involve more than 50,000 troops and over 5,000 weapons units, including 140 aircraft and 60 warships.
Russian General Staff chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, will personally oversee the drills involving troops from several ex-Soviet nations, China, India, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua and Syria.
The Defense Ministry noted that as part of the maneuvers, the Russian and Chinese navies in the Sea of Japan will “practice joint action to protect sea communications, areas of marine economic activity and support for ground troops in littoral areas.”
9:15 a.m.: A team of U.N. experts arrived at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia atomic plant complex on Thursday to assess the risk of a radiation disaster after being delayed several hours by shelling near the site, Reuters reported.
A Reuters reporter saw the IAEA team arrive in a large convoy with a heavy presence of Russian soldiers nearby. A Ukrainian source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters the mission "may turn out to be shorter than was planned."
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of trying to sabotage the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the plant in southern central Ukraine, which is controlled by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian staff.
Conditions at the nuclear plant, Europe's largest, have been unravelling for weeks, with Moscow and Kyiv regularly trading blame for shelling in the vicinity and fueling fears of a Chornobyl-style radiation disaster.
8:00 a.m.: The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Twitter Thursday morning that its inspection team, led by Director General Rafael Grossi, had reached the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility, after many delays.
7:40 a.m.: The IAEA's monitoring mission to the under-fire Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant may turn out to be "shorter than planned," a Ukrainian source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Thursday.
"The mission may turn out to be shorter than was planned," the source said on condition of anonymity.
The IAEA convoy's progress to the plant was delayed on Thursday by fresh shelling on its territory, with Kyiv and Moscow accusing each other of being responsible.
7:15 a.m.: Robert Mardini, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has warned that fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant must be halted immediately before a "massive incident" causes a humanitarian catastrophe, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
"In the event of a nuclear leak, it will be difficult if not impossible to provide humanitarian assistance...and this is why fighting should stop," Mardini told a news conference on September 1 during a visit to Ukraine.
"It is therefore time to stop playing with fire and instead take concrete measures to protect this facility, and others like it, from military any operations.... The slightest miscalculation could trigger devastation that we will regret for decades," he added.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency were on their way to visit the plant early on September 1 despite ongoing shelling. The mission is set to assess physical damage to the plant, determine the functionality of safety and security systems, evaluate staff conditions and perform urgent safeguards activities.
"The scenario could be a massive incident, and...there is very little anyone can do to mitigate the dire consequences of this," Mardini said.
6:40 a.m.: The Kremlin said on Thursday it was concerned about a possible "provocation" from Ukraine at the Russian-held Zaporizhzia nuclear power plant ahead of a visit by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Reuters reported.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of trying to sabotage the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the plant in southern Ukraine, which was delayed on Thursday due to shelling near the facility.
"We are concerned about a provocation from the Ukrainian side, given that barbaric and provocative shelling has not stopped," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. Peskov said Russia was ready to cooperate with the IAEA and was interested in seeing the IAEA mission arrive at the plant.
A spokesperson for the IAEA said that its mission was waiting at a Ukrainian checkpoint after fresh shelling but remained determined to reach the facility later in the day.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Thursday that Russia was doing everything to ensure that the plant, controlled by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian staff, was operating safely.
6:10 a.m.: The company that oversees Ukraine’s nuclear power plants said shelling by Russian forces triggered a shutdown at one of the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia plant, The Associated Press reported, underscoring the risks faced by a team of U.N. inspectors that was heading there Thursday to assess its safety.
Ukraine’s Enerhoatom said Russian mortar shelling led to the shutdown of one of its reactors by its emergency protection system. Shelling also damaged a backup power supply line used for in-house needs, and one of the plant’s reactors that wasn’t operating was switched to diesel generators, the company said.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency, led by its director Rafael Grossi, set off for the Russia-held nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — despite the heavy shelling for which Ukraine and Russia trade blame.
“There has been increased military activity, including this morning until very recently,” Grossi said, adding that after being briefed by the Ukrainian military he decided to get moving despite the inherent risks. “But weighing the pros and cons and having come so far, we are not stopping.”
A spokesman for the IAEA later said that the mission has been delayed on the Ukrainian-controlled side of the frontline for some three hours, adding that Grossi “has personally negotiated with Ukrainian military authorities to be able to proceed and he remains determined that this important mission reaches the ZNPP today.”
5:22 a.m.: The U.K. defense ministry, in its latest intelligence update, said Ukrainian forces continued offensive operations in southern Ukraine, supported by intensive long-range strikes against Russian command and logistics locations across the occupied zone.
4:34 a.m.: The Russian economy shrank 0.4% in the first six months of 2022 compared with a year ago, but capital investment, one of the main economic growth drivers, rose 7.8%, data from the federal statistics service Rosstat showed on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The export-dependent economy is plunging into recession, hit by sweeping Western sanctions for what Moscow calls "a special military operation" in Ukraine. But the depth of contraction has so far been not as big as initially thought.
In 2022, the economy will shrink by less than 3%, a top government official said this week in contrast to the earlier assumption from the economy ministry that had warned of a drop of more than 12%.
Rosstat data contradicts expectations of many economists who had predicted the Russian economy would collapse this year under the weight of unprecedented Western sanctions. But higher prices for its oil exports cushioning the impact.
3:31 a.m.: Germany's chief of defense has warned that the West must not underestimate Moscow's military strength, saying Russia has the scope to open up a second front should it choose to do so.
"The bulk of the Russian land forces may be tied down in Ukraine at the moment but, even so, we should not underestimate the Russian land forces' potential to open a second theatre of war," General Eberhard Zorn, the highest-ranking soldier of the Bundeswehr, told Reuters in an interview.
Beyond the army, Russia also has a navy and air force at its disposal, he added.
"Most of the Russian navy has not yet been deployed in the war on Ukraine, and the Russian air force still has significant potential as well, which poses a threat to NATO too," Zorn said.
2:37 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, issued its latest assessment of the Ukraine conflict, saying that Russian occupation authorities are imposing a curriculum on Ukrainian students aimed at eliminating the notion of Ukrainian national identity, explicitly in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speeches and writings falsely claiming that Ukraine is part of Russia, and that the Ukrainian identity was an invention of the Soviet period.
Russian forces, the assessment said, conducted a limited ground attack north of Kharkiv City and ground attacks south of Bakhmut and along the western outskirts of Donetsk City.
Ukrainian partisans, the assessment said, conducted an improvised explosive device (IED) attack against the headquarters of the “Together with Russia” political organization in Berdyansk, Zaporizhia Oblast, where occupation authorities were reportedly preparing for sham referenda.
1:25 a.m.:
12:02 a.m.: Belgium announced measures to tackle soaring energy prices, including cuts to public buildings' power consumption and a proposal to tax the excess profits of energy companies, Reuters reported.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Wednesday the heating in public buildings will be limited to 19 degrees Celsius and air conditioning use reduced, while lighting of offices and monuments will be switched off at 7 p.m. Talks will continue to decide on turning off lights on highways and in cities at certain hours.
The federal government also decided to extend a reduced 6% VAT rate for gas and electricity and a special energy rate for the poor until the end of the first quarter of 2023.
It also said it would present by the end of September a proposal to tax the excess profits of energy companies.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
