Ukraine updates: UN urges Russia to leave nuclear plant

Russia's attacks on two Ukrainian towns in the eastern Donetsk region have killed at least five and injured 13 others, a top official said on Friday.

Russia shelled Myrnohrad and Kostiantynivka, said Vadym Filashkin, head of the region's military administration.

Russian forces have repeatedly fired on Myrnohrad, in particular over the past few days, he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, once again called on allies tolift restrictions on the use of Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia.

"It's about the systematic destruction of air bases where strategic aviation is stationed," he wrote on Telegram to explain the goal of asking for the use of those weapons.

Those targets in Russia are used to target civilian populations, Podolyak said. 

Ukraine has documented the deaths of nearly 300 civilians from mines left by Russia and is collecting evidence for the International Criminal Court, Kyiv's domestic security service said on Friday.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it was preparing a "large-scale base of evidence" and would send it to The Hague once there was enough.

More than 1,000 Ukrainians have been injured and 297 killed, mostly in the eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, by mines of various types, according to SBU.

"To disguise the weapons, the occupiers use various common items including children's toys and candy boxes," the SBU said.

Though Moscow denies targeting civilians during its war in Ukraine, it has increased its aerial attacks on Ukraine in recent months, including targeting civilian infrastructure.

United States Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart Andrei Belousov spoke on Friday for the second time in a month, according to both countries' defense ministries.

On the telephone call, which the Pentagon has confirmed was initiated by Moscow, Austin and Belousov discussed lowering the risk of "possible escalation" amid rising tensions between the two superpowers over Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The conversation came just two days after the US announced that it would be redploying long-range cruise missiles to Germany for the first time in 20 years.

"The issue of preventing security threats and reducing the risk of possible escalation was discussed," according to the Kremlin.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh emphasized the importance of keeping open lines of communication during the Ukraine war, which is now well into its third year.

Finnish lawmakers narrowly approved a controversial bill that will allow border guards to turn back third-country migrants trying to enter the country from neighboring Russia and reject their asylum applications.

"This is a strong message to Russia, a strong message to our allies, that Finland takes care of its own security, we take care of the security of the EU border," Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told a press conference after the vote.

The government's bill, which aims to introduce temporary measures to stem the flow of migrants into the Nordic nation, is a response to what Finland sees as "hybrid warfare" by Russia. 

Finland has accused Russia of weaponizing migration by encouraging large numbers of migrants from countries such as countries like Syria and Somalia to cross the border, a claim the Kremlin denies.

Helsinki believes Moscow is encouraging the crossings in retaliation for Finland joining NATO, which supports Ukraine against Russia's invasion.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors passed a resolution condemning Monday's military strike on a children's hospital in the Ukrainian capital and holding Russia responsible.

"(The Board) condemns in the strongest terms the disruption of IAEA technical assistance to Ukraine caused by the Russian Federation's recent military strike that hit the 'Okhmatdyt' National Children's Specialized Hospital," the resolution said.

Ukraine asked the Board to consider the matter because the hospital had received IAEA assistance in the field of cancer diagnosis and treatment. The 35-nation Board passed the resolution by 20 votes to two with 12 abstentions, said diplomats.

The Ukrainian capital suffered one of its worst days of airstrikes since the war with Russia began on Monday, with attacks across the country killing at least 44 people, including two adults at the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital, Ukrainian officials have said.

In the last two months alone, Russia has lost more than 70,000 soldiers in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

In May, the rate of Russian soldiers killed and wounded was 1,262 per day; in June, the average was 1,163, according to the update.

"In total, Russia likely lost (killed and wounded) in excess of 70,000 personnel over the past two months," the British ministry said.

The increase in casualties was attributed in the update to Russia opening a new front in the Kharkiv region while maintaining its attack rate on the other fronts.

"Russia's casualty rate will likely continue to average above 1,000's a day over the next two months as Russia continues to try to overmatch Ukrainian positions with mass," the update said.

Responding to an alleged Russian plot to assassinate the head of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said she was taking the threat from Russia "very seriously."

"We are not commenting on individual threats," the minister told the dpa news agency in Berlin. "But one thing is very clear: we are taking the significantly increased threat of Russian aggression very seriously."

You can read more about the German reaction to the plot here: Germany decries Russian plot to assassinate Rheinmetall boss

Interior Ministry issued a statement stating that German security agencies are very vigilant and are acting accordingly, in close cooperation with our international partners.

"The federal government will not be intimidated by Russian threats. We will continue to do everything in our power to prevent possible threats in Germany," the statement said.

The ministry said that Russian threats are primarily aimed at undermining Germany's and our partners' support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia's war of aggression. "The Russian regime uses threats such as cyber attacks, disinformation, espionage and sabotage," it added.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin denied a media report that the United States had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate the head of Rheinmetall.

A court in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Donetsk region has sentenced an official of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to 14 years in prison on charges of spying for unspecified foreign intelligence services, Russia's prosecutor general said.

In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, the prosecutor general's office said Vadym Golda collected information on industrial facilities in the Donetsk region in 2021, which was then used to direct missile strikes on the province.

The Vienna-based OSCE said its leaders "unequivocally condemn" the sentencing as "a grave violation of participating states' commitments under international law" and called for the release of Golda and two other former OSCE employees jailed by Russia for treason in 2022.

Three Ukrainian nationals who were members of the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine — Golda, Maxim Petrov, and Dmytro Shabanov — have been detained in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine since 2022.

Ukraine's top prosecutor has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Russia over a missile strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv.

"For the sake of international justice, cases like the intentional attack on the biggest child hospital in Kyiv (are) worth lifting to the ICC," Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told Reuters news agency in an interview in The Hague, where the ICC is based.

The Ukrainian capital suffered one of its worst days of airstrikes since the war with Russia began on Monday, with attacks across the country killing at least 44 people, including two adults at the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital, Ukrainian officials have said.

The ICC prosecutor's office said Tuesday that one of its teams had visited the site of the hospital attack. It warned that anyone found responsible for attacks on civilian targets could be prosecuted. 

A UN rights mission has said it is "highly likely" the hospital was hit directly by a Russian missile. Ukraine's security service said it had clear evidence that the medical facility was hit by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.

Moscow has denied the attack on the hospital and blamed Ukrainian anti-missile fire for hitting the clinic. 

All five Kh-101 cruise missiles and 11 of 19 drones launched by Russia were shot down overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.

Russia's main target was the town of Starokostiantyniv, a major Ukrainian air base and a frequent target of Moscow's strikes, according to an air force statement.

"It is likely that the enemy is using imitators of attack drones to overload air defense. There was no information on casualties or damage," the air force said.

The governors of several targeted regions reported no damage or casualties in their statements Friday morning.

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution Thursday demanding that Russia "urgently withdraw" its military and other unauthorized personnel from Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. 

The resolution was co-sponsored by dozens of countries. Ninety-nine of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly voted in favor, nine against and 60 abstained.

The resolution, which is not legally binding, also stated that Moscow must immediately cease its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The General Assembly reiterated its call for an end to Russia's aggression against its neighbor and for its withdrawal from Ukraine.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has a capacity of nearly six gigawatts. It was occupied by Russian troops shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

The plant has been repeatedly hit by shelling, raising international concerns about a possible nuclear accident. Because of the danger, the plant was shut down in September 2022.

dh/sms (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)