It is day 761 of the war in Ukraine. Follow the recent developments here in this live blog.
Russia: US covers Ukraine with story about IS involvement
The US is covering for Ukraine by claiming that the Crocus attack was carried out by IS, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an article for kp.ru. This is reported by the TASS news agency.
“The American political engineers have backed themselves into a corner with their stories that the attack on Crocus City Hall was carried out by the terrorist group ISIS,” Zakharova said. According to Zakharova, the United States is covering “the Zelensky regime it created” with “the scarecrow of outlaw ISIS.” According to Zakharova, a number of factors point directly and indirectly to American involvement in sponsoring Ukrainian terrorism.
Fire in power station in southern Russia
The Novocherkasskaya GRES regional power plant in the Rostov region of southern Russia has been partially shut down after a fire broke out last night. This was reported by the TASS news agency based on statements by Governor Vasily Golubev.
Situation
Ukraine has hit two Russian military ships who were stationed in the illegally occupied Crimean peninsula, the Ukrainian military said. The targets were the landing ships Yamal and Azov, a communications center and other infrastructure of the Black Sea Fleet.
Poland demands an explanation from Moscow after a Russian missile violated Polish airspace during a missile attack on Ukraine. As a result, NATO member Poland has put its armed forces on heightened alert.
After the violation of Polish airspace, the US Ambassador to UkraineBridget Brink, that Russia “continues to indiscriminately launch drones and missiles without regard to millions of citizens and violates international law.”
Russia had one yesterday underground gas storage facility in Ukraine attacked, reports the Ukrainian state-owned company Naftogaz. Most of Ukraine’s gas storage capacity is located in the west of the country, with the capacity to store approximately 30 billion cubic meters of gas.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and distributors said that Ukraine had increased electricity imports and halted exports after the recent Russian attacks where the largest energy producer, DTEK, Lost 50 percent of its capacity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Sunday more than 200,000 Kharkiv residents have reliable power sat.
This live blog is based on reporting by BNR’s own correspondents and editors, The Guardian, ANP, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Associated Press, CNN, BBC, CNBC, Sky News and Agence France-Presse. BNR also uses online messages from the news agencies Tass, RIA Novosti and Interfax (Russia) and Belta (Belarus). Because reporting from these agencies is not verifiable and cannot be qualified as independent, in these cases it is explicitly stated where the reporting comes from.
