Russia-Ukraine updates: Ukraine military funeral attacked

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Russia was planning “dangerous provocations” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

“I warned Emmanuel Macron that the occupation troops are preparing dangerous provocations at the Zaporizhzhia plant,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.

“We agreed to keep the situation under maximum control together with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency],” he added.

The Ukrainian government accused Russia of planning a “provocation” at the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, while Russia claimed that Kyiv was planning to “attack” the facility.

Kyiv’s military warned of the “possible preparation of a provocation on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia power plant in the near future”, while a Russian official said Ukraine is planning on attacking the plant on July 5 with “high-precision, long-range weapons” and drones.

Fears about the safety of the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, have been constant throughout Russia’s invasion, but increased in early June after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the source of cooling water for its reactors.

Russia and Ukraine have regularly accused each other of putting the plant’s safety at risk since the outbreak of the war in February 2022.

President Zelenskyy congratulated NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on having his mandate extended, praising him for his “personal efforts” in supporting the war-torn country.

“I thanked Jens Stoltenberg for his personal efforts to support Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” Zelenskyy said after a phone call with the NATO chief.

“I am hopeful that our cooperation will remain fruitful in the future.”

Pope Francis’s peace envoy for Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, said he is working on a “mechanism” that could ensure the return of children who Kyiv says have been abducted to Russia.

“We’ll see how we can start the mechanism for the children [and] help as we have said on the humanitarian front, particularly the children that must be able to return to Ukraine”, Zuppi said at a book presentation in Rome.

He said he had personally discussed the issue with Francis.

The Italian cardinal visited Moscow last week and was previously in the Ukrainian capital. The Vatican has described his efforts as “aimed at identifying humanitarian initiatives, which could open roads to peace”.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said 185,000 new recruits joined the Russian army as professional contract soldiers since the start of the year.

Last year, Russia announced a plan to boost the size of its armed forces by more than 30 percent to 1.5 million combat personnel, an ambitious task made harder by its heavy but undisclosed casualties in the war.

Posters urging people to join up as contract soldiers are plastered throughout Russian cities, and TV adverts frequently pump out the same message.