Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukraine said its troops have marched farther east into territory recently abandoned by Russia, paving the way for a potential assault on Moscow’s occupation forces in the Donbas region as Kyiv seeks more Western arms.

Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Fighting

• Ukraine’s armed forces regain control of the village of Bilohorivka, preparing to retake all of Luhansk province from Russian occupiers, provincial Governor Serhiy Gaidai said. The village is only 10 km (6 miles) west of Lysychansk city, which fell to the Russians after weeks of grinding battles in July.

• Russian forces struck the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region but its reactors have not been damaged and are working normally, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said.

• The Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, is trying to recruit over 1,500 convicted felons to take part in Russia’s war in Ukraine, but many are refusing to join, a senior US defence official said.

• Reuters could not verify battlefield reports.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said investigators had discovered new evidence of torture used against some soldiers buried near Izium, in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

• The Kremlin rejected allegations that Russian forces had committed war crimes in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region as a “lie”. Moscow regularly denies committing atrocities in the war or deliberately attacking civilians.

Diplomacy/aid

• US President Biden urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to use tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of Russian military setbacks in Ukraine.

• Germany will supply Ukraine with four more Panzer howitzer 2000 tanks along with an additional ammunition package, the defence ministry said. Ukraine has urged the West to step up military aid to help it turn the tide of battle against Russia.

• Zelenskiy has hinted he would use a video address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to call on countries to accelerate weapons and aid deliveries.

Quotes

• “The occupiers are clearly in a panic,” Zelenskiy said in a televised address late on Monday, adding that he was now focused on “speed” in liberated areas. (Compiled by Stephen Coates, Mark Heinrich, Cynthia Osterman and Michael Perry)