26 November 2024,   07:59
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497th day of war in Ukraine - the list of key events

Overnight residential buildings and a medical facility were damaged by a Russian rocket attack on Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region.

Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions came under fire from Ukrainian forces across the border in the early hours of Wednesday, the regions’ governors said, adding that no casualties were reported.

Ukrainian officials said at least 43 people, including 12 children, were wounded in a Russian missile strike on Tuesday which an officer said targeted a military funeral in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. The strike hit a parking lot outside a residential building in the town of around 28,000 people.

The Ukraine government accused Russia of planning a “provocation” at the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, while Russia claimed that Kyiv was planning to “attack” the facility. Fears over the safety risks for the nuclear plant, have been constant throughout Russia’s invasion, but increased in early June after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that “objects resembling explosives” had been placed on the roof of several power units “perhaps to simulate an attack”. He added: “The world sees - can’t but see – that the only source of danger to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is Russia and no one else.”

Russia sees no basis for renewing the Black Sea grain deal, the Russian foreign ministry said, less than 2 weeks before the expiration of the agreement, which has allowed grain to be shipped out of Black Sea ports despite the war in Ukraine. The ministry said in a statement Russia was doing everything so that all ships covered by the deal could leave the Black Sea before it expires on 17 July, Reuters reported.

Oleksiy Danilov has described recent days of battle as “fruitful” for Ukraine in terms of destroying the resources of the Russian forces. In a post to social media, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council described Ukraine as acting “calmly” and “wisely’ in its counteroffensive.

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