Ukraine updates: Western weapons used in Kursk, Russia says

Safety at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is "deteriorating" after two near misses over the past week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Rafael Grossi said.

The Russian plant management said a Ukrainian drone blew up a road outside the plant, the TASS state news agency reported. Kyiv and Moscow also traded blame after a fire broke out at a cooling tower at the power station last weekend.

The IAEA team on site reported "intense" military activity over the past week, including very close to the plant, a statement from the IAEA said.

"The team has heard frequent explosions, repetitive heavy machine gun and rifle fire and artillery at various distances from the plant," it said.

The statement from IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said his staff had visited the area and found "considerable damage" that "seemed to have been caused by a drone equipped with an explosive payload."

"Yet again we see an escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant," Grossi said.

He called for "maximum restraint" and said safety at the facility was "deteriorating," although there was no immediate threat to nuclear safety.

The Zaporizhzhia plant was seized by Russia's forces early in the war and has since come under repeated attacks.

The IAEA has warned several times that reckless military action could trigger a major nuclear accident at the plant.

Moscow has begun criminal proceedings against three Western war reporters for unlawfully entering Russia's Kursk region where Ukrainian troops began a ground incursion 11 days ago.

Russia's domestic Federal Security Service (FSB) said it was acting after journalists Simone Traini and Stefania Battistini, "illegally crossed the State Border of the Russian Federation."

It said the reporters — who are from Italy — had "carried out video shooting in the territory of the settlement of Sudzha," a town in the region that Ukraine's forces claim to now control.

Italian public broadcaster RAI aired a report on Wednesday showing the journalists driving into Kursk in an armored vehicle, accompanied by Ukrainian soldiers, and speaking to residents.

Russia summoned Italy's ambassador to Moscow, Cecilia Piccioni, to protest the unauthorized report on Friday. Piccioni told Moscow that Italian editorial teams operate independently of the state.

Rai said it would repatriate its staff to ensure their safety.

Russia has placed strict curbs on foreign journalists reporting from inside the country since beginning its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Several news outlets, including DW, had their Moscow bureaus closed and press accreditation withdrawn. Independent media has been all but eradicated in the country.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Russia's Republic of Chechnya, showed off a machine gun-mounted Tesla Cybertruck, saying it would be soon sent to Ukraine.

Kadyrov could be seen behind the wheel of the electric pick-up driving in the regional capital Grozny, a video posted on his Telegram channel showed.

"I express my sincere gratitude to Elon Musk. This is, of course, the strongest genius of our time and a specialist. A great man," Kadyrov said in an accompanying post.

"Based on such excellent characteristics, the Cybertruck will soon be sent to the area of the special military operation," he added, referring to the Kremlin's name for its Ukraine offensive.

The 47-year-old Chechen leader said the vehicle would be "in demand in the appropriate conditions."

Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist for over 17 years, is a vocal ally of Moscow and says he has deployed thousands of troops to help Russia with its war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country's troops had strengthened positions and expanded territory in Russia's Kursk region.

Army chief Oleksandr Syrsky "reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of stabilized territory," Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram.

"As of this morning, we have replenished the exchange fund for our country," the president said, referring to Russian soldiers Ukraine has captured to be used in future prisoner swaps.

"I thank all the soldiers and commanders who are taking Russian soldiers prisoner and thus bringing the release of our soldiers and civilians held by Russia closer," Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine says it has seized more than 80 settlements over 1,150 square kilometers (444 square miles) in Russia's Kursk since August 6.

The Ukrainian military said in its daily report that troops were successfully advancing further in Kursk, without offering more details. It is not possible to independently verify the claims.

Russia has called the Kursk incursion a major "provocation" with Western weapons and vowed a "worthy response."

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Ukraine has used Western rocket systems to destroy a bridge over the Seym river in the Kursk region.

"For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, probably American HIMARS," Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, wrote on Telegram.

She said the attack "completely destroyed" the bridge in the Glushkovo district and that volunteers who were assisting civilians with evacuating their homes in the region were killed. The report could not be independently verified.

Ukraine's surprise military incursion into neighboring Kursk region appeared to have caught Moscow by surprise.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine's cross-border incursion was to stop Moscow's offensive in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region and gain leverage in possible future peace talks.

Ukraine's air defense systems shot down all 14 Russian drones fired in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Saturday.

The air force wrote on Telegram that Shahed drones that targeted six Ukrainian regions in the south and center of the country had been fired down. 

Russia is not ready for peace talks with Ukraine yet, Germany's ambassador to Moscow has said.

"At the moment, the Russian side is not showing any willingness to negotiate but is insisting on exaggerated preconditions," Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told Bonner General-Anzeiger in remarks published Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is only prepared to sit down for talks with Ukraine if Ukrainian troops pulled out from the regions that Russia has illegally annexed. "Then it is clear that there is no seriousness behind it," Lambsdorff said.

He added that one day "Russia must also realize that it is achieving far less with this war than it set out to do at the beginning that it is causing itself serious damage internationally and that it is in a war economy that is completely overheated and will not be sustainable."

rm/sri (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)