Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 494

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv after a 12-day break, according to a Ukrainian military official. There was no immediate information about the scale of the attack.
The Ukrainian military reported fierce clashes in the front-line Donetsk region where it said Russia had amassed troops and attempted to advance. It named the outskirts of three cities – Bakhmut, Lyman and Marina – as front-line hot spots.
Officials in Donetsk, meanwhile, reported that at least three civilians were killed and 17 wounded by Russian shelling on Friday and overnight on Saturday.
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence said the Ukrainian military has secured a bridgehead on the Russian-occupied eastern bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a “serious threat” remained at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine and that Moscow was “theoretically ready” to provoke a localised explosion at the facility.
Zelenskyy also held a meeting of Ukraine’s top military command and atomic energy officials at another of the country’s top nuclear plants in northwestern Rivne to discuss the “security of our northern regions”.
Satellite images analysed by The Associated Press show what appears to be a newly-built military-style camp in Belarus, with statements from a Belarusian armed group and officials suggesting it may be used to house fighters from the Wagner mercenary group.

Diplomacy

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez paid a visit to Kyiv as a show of continuing support from Madrid and the European Union for Ukraine’s fight against invading Russian forces.

Speaking alongside Sanchez, Zelenskyy said he wanted NATO leaders, who will be holding a key summit in Vilnius, to extend an invitation to Ukraine after the war.
Some 40 Russian diplomats and embassy staff in the Romanian capital Bucharest have left the country as ties between Russia and Romania worsen following Moscow’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, said the armed mutiny by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was a challenge to the Russian state that showed the corrosive effect of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
He added that disaffection in Russia with the war in Ukraine was creating a rare opportunity to recruit spies – and that the CIA was not letting it pass.

Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, announced Madrid would deliver more heavy weaponry to Ukraine including four Leopard tanks and armoured personnel carriers, as well as a portable field hospital.
He also said Spain will provide an additional 55 million euros ($60m) to help with reconstruction needs.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, expressed frustration about the lack of clarity over Western training for Ukrainian fighter pilots. He said Western allies had not yet set a timetable to train pilots on US-made F-16s despite their expressions of readiness.