Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

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Russia has widened its attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine in the past week and is likely to expand further, Britain said on Sunday, as Ukrainians returning to territory abandoned by Russian forces tried to find their dead

KHARKIV REGION

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* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that investigators had discovered new evidence of torture used against some soldiers buried near Izium, one of more than 20 towns recovered in the northeastern region of Kharkiv after a lightning advance by Ukrainian forces earlier this month.

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* He said in a video address that authorities had found a mass grave containing the bodies of 17 soldiers in Izium, some of whom he said bore signs of torture.

* The Kremlin has not publicly commented on the discovery of graves in Izium. Moscow regularly denies committing atrocities in the war or deliberately targeting civilians.

* “Like Chornobyl”: Ukrainians have started returning to their hometowns in the northeastern region of Kharkiv after it was retaken by Ukrainian forces.

FIGHT

* The Russian military, seeking conscripts for what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, is using mobile recruiting trucks to attract volunteers, offering nearly $3,000 a month as an incentive.

* Five civilians were killed in Russian attacks in the Donetsk region over the past day, while in Nikopol several dozen skyscrapers and private buildings, gas pipelines and power lines were damaged by Russian strikes, regional governors said separately .

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* Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces had launched strikes against Ukrainian positions in several parts of Ukraine and accused Kyiv of shelling near the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine denied bombing near the plant.

* One of four main power lines at the Zaporizhzhia plant has been repaired and is supplying electricity to the plant on the Ukrainian grid two weeks after the collapse, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Saturday.

* Both sides reported injuries in fighting in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk on Saturday.

* Reuters could not verify reports from the battlefield.

DIPLOMACY

* Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday dismissed Ukraine’s swift counteroffensive and cast Russia’s invasion as a necessary step to prevent what he said was a Western plot to break up Russia.

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* US President Joe Biden urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to use tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of mishaps in Ukraine in a clip released by CBS on Sunday. “No. Do not do it. Do not do it. It would change the face of warfare like nothing since World War II,” he told “60 Minutes.”

* Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a global food crisis exacerbated by war will be the focus of world leaders when they meet at the United Nations General Assembly this week, a meeting unlikely to yield any progress towards the end of the conflict.

ECONOMY

* A total of 165 ships with 3.7 million tonnes of agricultural products on board have left Ukraine under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to unblock Ukraine’s seaports, the ministry said ‘Infrastructures of Ukraine.

QUOTES

* “Over the past seven days, Russia has increased the targeting of civilian infrastructure even where it likely sees no immediate effect,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in a tweet.

“As it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely expanded the locations it is willing to attack in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government.” (Compiled by Raissa Kasolowsky Editing by Frances Kerry)