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5 mins ago
Zelensky rules out future negotiations if Russia holds referendums in Ukraine
By Oleksandra Ochman, Mariya Knight
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that he will not hold further negotiations if Russia holds referendums in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
"Every week there are more reports that the occupiers are preparing pseudo-referendums in the occupied areas in the south of our country," Zelensky said in his late-night speech on Sunday.
"I want to say one very simple thing, everyone who helps the occupiers in any way to carry out their intention will be held accountable. They will be responsible to Ukraine."
Officials in the Russian-held territories of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region have previously said they would hold referendums to join Russia.
"The position of our state remains the same: we will not give up anything of ours," Zelensky reiterated, warning that if the Russian occupiers pursue the referendums, "they will close for themselves any possibility of negotiation with Ukraine and the free world, which the Russian side will definitely need at a certain time.
7 mins ago
Zelensky adviser warns Russia may be preparing to bring more forces to the front lines
By Mariya Knight
Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.
(Photo: Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Sunday called on Germany to help him increase its arms supply in an interview with the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, according to the president's office.
The office published a reading of the interview on its official website on Sunday.
Podolyak said in the interview that Ukraine needs "the supply of as many modern weapons as possible" and called for the participation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
"The faster and faster we get heavy weapons, the sooner we can stop this war," he said.
Podolyak warned that he believes Russia wants to "freeze the conflict for six months in order to bring new troops and weapons to the front lines", although there has been no official indication of this from the Russian side.
"If the West gets tired of war, Russia will strike again with full force," Podolyak said.
According to the adviser, Ukraine needs the supply of long-range artillery, MLRS and unmanned aerial vehicles.
"Germany must now take a different path, understand what Russia really is. It is a fact that we need more weapons," Podolyak added.
9 mins ago
Two other ships loaded with Ukrainian grain are headed for international markets
By Tim Lister, Julia Kesaieva
The Sacura granary is seen at the Pivdennyi seaport, this Monday.
(Ministry of the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority/Handout/Reuters)
Grain exports from Ukraine via Black Sea ports continued on Monday, with the first ship leaving the southern port of Yuzhnyi under a UN-brokered deal to help alleviate the war-induced global food crisis. .
The Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry said the bulk carrier Sacura had become the first ship to leave the port since the first days of the war in February.
The Sacura and the Arizona, which left the southwestern city of Chornomorsk on Monday, carry 60,000 metric tons of agricultural products to international markets.
The Infrastructure Ministry said its goal is to increase transshipment to three to five ships a day in the next two weeks.
11 mins ago
The UN Secretary-General calls the bombing around the Ukrainian nuclear power plant "suicidal"
By Tim Lister
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
United Nations Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres has called recent artillery and missile fire around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in central Ukraine "suicidal."
"Any attack on nuclear power plants is suicidal," Guterres told reporters in Tokyo.
"I hope these attacks will end," he said, calling for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have access to the plant.
The Zaporizhia plant is the largest in Europe and occupies a large site on the Dnipro River.
Since Russian forces captured it in early March, it has continued to operate at a reduced capacity, with Ukrainian technicians still working.
Fears about the safety of the plant have been growing since Russian forces took over the site, but reached a turning point last week when bombardments damaged a high-voltage power line and forced one of the reactors to stop operating. of the plant, despite the fact that no radioactive leak was detected.
Fears of nuclear disaster grow after new missile hit Ukraine plant
Ukraine's state-owned energy company, Energoatom, said over the weekend that a worker was injured in Russian shelling around the plant, adding that radiation monitoring sensors were also damaged.
Meanwhile, Russia blames Ukraine for the bombing around the plant.
Russian-backed authorities in the nearest town, Energodar, said a Ukrainian missile fell less than 400 meters from one of the plant's reactors.
Energodar was taken over by Russian forces at the same time as the plant.
"Tonight, Ukrainian armed formations have attacked with a 220mm Uragan cluster rocket," the local authority said, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
"The administrative buildings and the adjacent territory of the dry barrel warehouse were damaged by the shells."
CNN cannot verify the claims of either party.
The Russians have bombed the Ukrainian city of Nikopol from positions near the plant.
On Saturday, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he was very concerned about the bombing "which underscores the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond."
war in ukraine
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