August 31, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

UN nuclear experts en route to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are expected to arrive on Thursday morning, a local official appointed by Moscow told Russian state television.

The team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) set off from Kyiv early Wednesday.

The plant is near the front line of the war in Ukraine and was captured by Russian troops in March. Both sides have accused each other of shelling it.

It is uncertain how long the IAEA visit will last. Another official, Yevgeniy Balitsky, who heads the Russian-backed regional administration of Zaporizhzhia, suggested the visit would last just one day.

But earlier on Wednesday, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told reporters: "We are going to be spending a few days there." Meanwhile, Volga said his administration was ready to provide the team with accommodation in Enerhodar if necessary.

On Monday, Russia’s permanent representative to the international organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told state news agency RIA Novosti that Grossi hopes to station IAEA officials at the plant.

Tributes for Mikhail Gorbachev continue to flood in from around the world, with leaders highlighting the pivotal role he played in ending the Cold War.

Honoring Gorbachev's leadership and the impact he had on his country, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: "We will never forget that perestroika (restructuring) made possible that Russia could try to establish democracy and that democracy and freedom became possible in Europe, that Germany could be united, that the Iron Curtain disappeared.

Scholz added that Gorbachev died during a time when "not only the democracy in Russia has failed ... but also Russia and the Russian President Putin draws new trenches in Europe."

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said in a statement: "His desire for peace and his opposition to an imperialist vision of Russia earned him the Nobel Prize. These are timely messages in the face of the tragedy of Ukraine’s invasion."

In a statement released on Twitter, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote: "Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of warmth, hope, resolve and enormous courage, and in a world that was profoundly divided he was driven by an instinct for co-operation and unity. Ultimately, he lifted a great shadow that lay across humanity."

French President Emmanuel Macron described Gorbachev as "a man of peace whose choices opened a path to freedom for Russians," adding: "His commitment to peace in Europe changed our common history."

Speaking at a press conference Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian said: "Mr Gorbachev had made positive contributions to the normalization of relations between China and the Soviet Union."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his "deepest condolences" to the relatives and friends of Mikhail Gorbachev, saying the former Soviet leader "had a huge impact on the course of world history."

The official letter was published on the Kremlin’s website.

Putin said Gorbachev led "our country during a period of complex, dramatic changes, large-scale foreign policy, and economic and social challenges," adding that "he deeply understood that reforms were necessary."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team traveling to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "must see the work of the station in one day," the head of the Russian-appointed local administration told news agency Interfax.

The IAEA delegation left Kyiv for Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine, early Wednesday. It is unclear when they plan to enter the power plant.

Balitsky said he did not have high hopes for the results of the IAEA mission.

He claimed he not been in touch with the delegation but would meet them and show them shrapnel from attacks on the plant, which Russia blames on the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

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

Tributes have poured in from around the world for Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the former Soviet Union who died on Tuesday age 91, with many global leaders hailing his role promoting peace and advancing freedoms.

But in China, Gorbachev's legacy is seen in a different light, as it raises the specter of a historical event that has long been cited as a cautionary tale for the ruling Communist Party: the fall of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev, who presided over the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse at the end of 1991, is widely credited with helping to end the Cold War and introducing key political and economic reforms to the USSR.

For an entire generation of Chinese leaders, however, Gorbachev has come to represent the perils of embracing democratic reforms, with officials long suggesting Communist-ruled China could face a similar fate to former ideological cousin the USSR if internal politics are left unchecked.

Beijing's official response to Gorbachev's death has been brief. A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, when asked for comment in a briefing Wednesday, said Gorbachev "had made positive contributions to the normalization of relations between China and the Soviet Union."

As news of the former leader's death trended on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Wednesday morning, many users expressed their feelings of witnessing history and the end of an era, but some took a harder line.

Read the full analysis here.

The death of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, known for his pivotal role in ending the Cold War and introducing key reforms to the USSR, has prompted an outpouring of condolences and tributes from world leaders.

Gorbachev died age 91 on Tuesday following a long illness, according to Russian state news agencies. He was the final leader of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until its collapse in 1991.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences and will send a message to Gorbachev's family and friends on Wednesday, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti, citing Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

European leaders, meanwhile, praised Gorbachev's legacy, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling the former Soviet leader "a man of peace whose choices opened a path to freedom for Russians."

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said on Twitter that Gorbachev had "opened the way for a free Europe."

"He played a crucial role to end the Cold War and bring down the Iron Curtain," she wrote.

Putin's relationship with Gorbachev: The two leaders were often ideologically opposed, with Putin, who served in the KGB security agency during Gorbachev's time in office, referring to the demise of the Soviet Union as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century during a 2005 speech.

While earlier this year, the Gorbachev Foundation, a research institute set up by the former leader to promote "democratic values," issued a statement two days after Putin's invasion of Ukraine calling for "an early cessation of hostilities and (the) immediate start of peace negotiations."

"There is nothing more precious in the world than human lives," the statement said.

Read more here.

Mikhail Gorbachev's tragedy is that he outlived the thaw in the Cold War between Moscow and the US, after doing more than anyone to engineer it.

The last leader of the Soviet Union died on Tuesday at the age of 91, with Washington and the Kremlin on opposite sides of President Vladimir Putin's hot war in Ukraine, launched in part to avenge the Soviet collapse precipitated by Gorbachev's rule.

It is hard to encapsulate what Gorbachev meant to Western publics in the 1980s, after one of the most dangerous periods of the standoff between East and West. After generations of severe, hostile, hardline and elderly Kremlin leaders, he was young, modern, and fresh — a visionary and a reformer.

Gorbachev inspired sudden hope that the nuclear showdown that haunted the world in the second half of the 20th century would not end up destroying civilization. US President Ronald Reagan and his British soulmate, Margaret Thatcher, were the most hawkish of Cold warriors. But to their credit, they realized a moment of promise — as the British Prime Minister said of the Soviet leader: "We can do business together."

Fall of Soviet Union: After a heady series of nuclear arms control reduction talks and meetings with Western leaders, Gorbachev became a hero in the West. But it was his decision not to intervene with military force when popular rebellions erupted against Communist regimes in Warsaw Pact nations in 1989 that led to the liberation of Eastern Europe, the fall of the Iron Curtain, the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany.

But while he was lionized in the West, Gorbachev came to be seen as a pariah at home. It is often forgotten now that his goal wasn't necessarily to dismantle the communist Soviet Union. In many ways, his hand was forced by decades of economic decay in the communist system and the draining impact of a nuclear arms race with the West.

But in trying to save the system, he set off forces that destroyed it. Far from heralding the "end of history" as was often said at the time, his influence caused consequences that could still be felt on the day he died, with Moscow and the West again at loggerheads in a Cold War-style chill.

Read the full analysis here.

Nord Stream 1 pipeline gas flows into Europe dropped to zero on Wednesday morning, according to operator data, as part of a scheduled halt announced last week.

The halt will last through September 2, Russian state energy giant Gazprom confirmed Friday. 

Nord Stream 1 is the largest pipeline bringing Russian natural gas supplies to Europe via Germany and was previously shut down for 10 days in late July for what Gazprom described as "annual maintenance." 

Some context: Wednesday’s outage has fueled concerns that Russia is deliberately cutting off supplies of its gas to Europe, in retaliation for Western sanctions over its war in Ukraine — an allegation Moscow denies. 

A team of United Nations nuclear inspectors has left Kyiv to travel to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, the delegation's leader Rafael Grossi told reporters Wednesday. 

Grossi is leading a delegation of 14 experts to inspect the facility as fears mount over a potential nuclear accident amid recent shelling in the area. 

"We are going to a warzone, to occupied territory. This requires explicit guarantees not only from the Russian Federation but also from the Republic of Ukraine. And we have been able to secure that," he said.