Russia's war in Ukraine

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky met with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday, according to a press officer with Zelensky’s office. 

The meeting came as Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of shelling the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ahead of a planned visit by a delegation of the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, later in the week.

Zelensky told Grossi that the IAEA's mission in Ukraine is "urgent" and that Ukraine wants its team to do more than carry out an inspection at the plant.

Zelensky said that he hoped the delegation would "find an opportunity, thanks to our special services, thanks to the security corridors, to get to the station, and do the best to avoid all those threats on a global scale."

He blamed the Russian military for the "creation of great risks, regarding explosions, regarding the failure to work of the nuclear reactors, regarding the risks of disconnecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant units from our network, and regarding the risks of the heating season for our citizens." 

Zelensky urged the IAEA to do more than inspect the plant, saying that strategic decisions were required "regarding the urgent demilitarization of the station, the withdrawal of all, any, military personnel of the Russian Federation with explosives, with any kind of weapon."

Zelensky insisted that the area should become a demilitarized zone and that there should be a transition of the plant to full control of the Ukrainian state.

The Biden administration has been helping the Ukrainian military prepare for its now ongoing counteroffensive for the last couple of months by fulfilling specific arms requests, an administration official says.

Ukraine had been asking the US for weapons specifically suited to their planned southern counter offensive in the months leading up to the launch this week, the official says.

The US fulfilled many of those requests — including additional ammunition, artillery and Javelins — over the course of several presidential drawdown assistance packages provided to Ukraine over the last two months, the official said. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and top US General Mark Milley have routinely talked to their Ukrainian counterparts to determine what specific weapon needs depending on Ukraine’s battlefield goals. 

All European Union member states agree on launching the “work necessary to define the parameters for a new military assistance mission for Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday. 

There are “many training initiatives on the way” for the Ukrainian military, he said after a meeting of EU defense ministers in Prague.

The top EU diplomat also said that the Ukrainian defense minister had shown the EU a list of short-, medium- and long-term training activities that country’s military needs. 

"We need to ensure the coherence of this effort,” he said. “It’s clear that we need to be quick and ambitious, demonstrate added value, flexibility, once again based on the needs of Ukrainian armed forces."

Ukrainian officials say that the damage to bridges across the Dnipro river in the Kherson region means that Russian forces are unable to cross the river to assist units on the front lines further north.

"The enemy is trying to pull up reserves from the Left (south) bank," Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military's Operational Command South, said at a briefing Tuesday.

That had proved impossible, she added, "because we carefully and precisely worked on these bridges: they are the main transport arteries across the Dnipro, they became impassable for heavy equipment." 

"They may continue to try to set up a ferry or pontoon crossing, but the whole area where it can be deployed is also under our fire control and will be hit," Humeniuk added.

There were further strikes reported on the main Antonivskiy road bridge connecting southern Kherson with Kherson city early Tuesday.

Germany would want to see Russian persecuted opposition members excluded from a possible European Union-wide visa ban for Russian citizens, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on the side of a German cabinet retreat on Tuesday. 

Berlin is ready to suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Russia and stop issuing multiple visas or multiple-years visas, Baerbock said. 

During a two-day informal gathering in Prague, EU defense and foreign ministers are considering further measures against Russia, and one proposal put forward by Eastern European countries is to ban Russian tourists from entering the EU.

The German government wants to enable "persecuted people in Russia to leave the country very quickly," Baerbock said. 

The visa opportunity should offer refuge not only for "very well-known journalists or very well-known opposition members, but we must also leave the possibility for students who have the courage at their university to inform themselves elsewhere," the minister said.

"We must prepare ourselves for the fact that Russia will continue to pose a threat to our security and our freedom in the near future and that at the same time we cannot view the entire security policy solely in terms of this Russian war of aggression,” she added. 

In a Vatican statement, Pope Francis today issued by far his strongest words yet on Russia's war in Ukraine, calling it “morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious.”

The Vatican's daily news bulletin called for everyone to pray to “rebuild peace” and the “defense of human life and the values connected to it, and not as political positions.”

In the bulletin, the Pope also responded to some of the criticism he’s faced due to his recent comments concerning the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian ultranationalist firebrand Alexander Dugin. 

Dugina was killed after a bomb planted in a car she was driving went off in the outskirts of Moscow on Aug. 20.

Last week, the Pope said: “I think of that poor girl who was blown up by a bomb that was under her car seat in Moscow. The innocent pay for war, the innocent.”

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) have blamed Ukrainian special services for the murder of Dugina; however, Ukraine has denied any involvement, calling the FSB claims fiction.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted last week by expressing disappointment over the Pope's statement, saying it "unjustly" equates "the aggressor and the victim."

At least four people were killed and nine others wounded in shelling of central Kharkiv on Tuesday, according to Oleh Synehubov, the head of the regional military administration. 

“All emergency services are working on the spot” to help those injured, Synehubov wrote on his official Telegram channel.

Ukraine and Russia continued to accuse each other on Tuesday of shelling the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine ahead of a planned visit by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expected later in the week. 

The Russian authorities, who are in control of the plant and the nearby city of Enerhodar, reported artillery strikes early Tuesday morning close to a spent fuel storage building. The claim was made on the authorities’ official Telegram account and put the blame on Ukraine.

A statement from the Russian defense ministry repeated the allegation and noted that “the radiation situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant remains normal.” 

Kyiv again blamed Moscow for attacking the area around the power plant. 

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, alleged in a tweet that Russia, “is deliberately shelling corridors for [the] IAEA mission to reach ZNPP [the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant],” and reiterated Ukrainian demands for Russian troops to withdraw from the plant. 

CNN is unable to verify who is responsible for the shelling, as both sides have repeatedly accused each other. 

The head of the IAEA, who is leading the organization’s mission to Ukraine, has said that “military actions near to such a large nuclear facility could lead to very serious consequences." 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists in a briefing Tuesday that he hoped the IAEA visit will proceed.

"We hope that this mission will take place as agreed and discussed. I repeat once again: We are interested in this mission and have been waiting for it for a long time," he said.  

Russian gas company Gazprom will reduce its supply of gas to France, effective today, French industrial energy group Engie announced in a statement on Tuesday morning.

The decrease in supply is “due to a disagreement between the parties on the application of contracts,” according to Engie.

Engie also said these actions won't affect supply.

The company had “already secured the necessary volumes to ensure the supply of its customers and of its own needs” and it has implemented a series of “measures to significantly reduce the direct financial and physical impacts that could result from an interruption of gas deliveries by Gazprom," it said.