???? Live: IAEA chief Grossi to visit Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Issued on: 15/06/2023 – 08:48

8:20am: Norway and Denmark to donate 9,000 rounds of artillery to Ukraine

Norway and Denmark have agreed to donate an additional 9,000 rounds of artillery to Ukraine, the Norwegian ministry of defence said in a statement on Thursday.

Norway will provide the shells, while Denmark will donate fuses and propellant charges, the Norwegian ministry said.

7:00am: IAEA chief Rafael Rossi to visit Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi will visit the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Thursday, a day later than previously planned, Interfax news agency cited a Russian-installed local official as saying on Wednesday.

The delay was attributed to safety concerns, according to a senior official.

6:48am: Russia strikes industrial facilities in Kryvyi Rih

Russian missiles hit two industrial facilities in the central Ukrainian city Kryvyi Rih in the early hours of Thursday, city mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said, with an drone attack also reported in Odesa.

Vilku said three rockets hit two industrial enterprises “that had nothing to do with the military”, injuring one 38-year-old man. One car was damaged with debris of missiles downed by air defences.

“The destruction is significant,” Vilkul wrote on Telegram messaging app.

9:15pm: Captured Ukrainian soldiers face trial in Russia

More than 20 Ukrainian soldiers who were taken prisoner during fighting in Ukraine went on trial in southern Russia on Wednesday.

The captured soldiers were members of the Azov battalion, an elite Ukrainian armed forces unit that fought Russian troops in the Sea of Azov port of Mariupol. Russia captured Mariupol last year after a three-month battle that reduced most of the city to smoldering ruins.

The last remaining Ukrainian defenders who holed up at a giant steel mill in Mariupol surrendered to Russian forces in May 2022. 

Russian authorities have designated the Azov battalion as a terrorist group. The defendants are facing charges of involvement in a terrorist organisation and taking part in action to overthrow the Russia-backed authorities in the Donetsk region.

They face sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison if convicted.

Key developments from Wednesday, June 14:

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

“We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency’s Telegram channel.

“The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he said.

At least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday, authorities said.

Russia fired four Kalibr missiles from a ship in the Black Sea, Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the region’s military administration, said on Telegram.

A strike on a retail chain’s warehouse killed three employees and wounded seven others, he said.

“There may be people under the rubble,” he added.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)