Latest Ukraine news: Borrell warns Putin against nuclear attack

Reporting on the news regarding Putin’s proposal to redirect gas to the EU through Turkey,  Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said Turkey’s energy minister told reporters at the energy conference in Kazakhstan with Putin that “this is a feasible project, and technically, energy-wise, this is possible and it shall be studied.”

It remains to be seen whether European countries would accept this proposal, Koseoglu said.

“When it comes to energy pipelines, this is more than a solution; this is like a geostrategic game, a strategic problem,” Koseoglu said. “What will define the situation will be the European Union’s request or demand or appetite regarding Russian gas.

“Through this proposal, Erdogan gains another chance to gain more credibility among his European counterparts.”

Read more here.

There has been some progress in talks about the embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“The work continues, and I believe we are making good progress,” Rafael Grossi said.

He was referring to a security zone for the Zaporizhzhia plant which he advocates. However, there were no concrete signals of approval from Moscow and Kyiv.

The French presidency has snubbed Putin’s proposal to build a new gas hub in Turkey to supply Europe, saying it made “no sense”.

“There is no sense in creating new infrastructures that allow more Russian gas to be imported,” the presidency said.

NATO defence ministers have discussed how to prepare for a potential Russian nuclear attack against Ukraine and maximise the alliance’s nuclear deterrent.

Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler has more on the summit, from Brussels.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, says the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains concerning and there is an urgent need for a “protection zone” around the site.

Zelenskyy has stressed the need to punish all Russian “murderers and torturers” and appealed for more air defence systems to fight Moscow’s renewed bombardments.

Zelenskyy told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that bringing the offenders to book was necessary to ensure lasting peace on the continent.

“We must continue our dialogue in order to hold Russia as the aggressor state and each of the Russian murderers and torturers to account for all crimes in this war, for every manifestation of terror,” he said via video link.

“When these legal mechanisms are established and operational, it will be one of the most powerful guarantees of long-term peace,” he said.

Ukrainian shelling has blown up an ammunitions depot in a Russian border village, the governor of Russia’s frontier Belgorod region has said on Telegram.

“In a village of the Belgorod district, an ammunition depot was blown up as a result of shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said. “Residents will now be taken to a safe distance.”

NATO will continue to support Ukraine but “will not be dragged” into the war there, the US secretary of defense has said.

Speaking at a news conference after the two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers, Lloyd Austin said, “NATO will not be dragged into Russia’s war of choice but we will stand by Ukraine as it fights to defend itself.”

Austin said Putin’s “nuclear sabre-rattling” is “very dangerous”, but declined to reveal how NATO would respond to an eventual nuclear attack on Ukraine. At the same time, he stressed that Moscow still has a choice “to end this war today”.

Ukraine’s emergency services have warned citizens of the likelihood of more Russian attacks, with air raid sirens ringing out in Lviv.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom joins us live from Lviv in western Ukraine for the latest updates.

Russian state energy giant Rosneft has filed a complaint with a top court in Germany against the government for taking control of its German unit including a major refinery, according to a report in German newspaper Handelsblatt.

Rosneft argued that the German government’s move last month was unjustified given that the firm had always upheld its oil delivery commitments, the report said, citing the law firm hired by Rosneft, Malmendier Legal.

“Until today, Rosneft has been fulfilling its crude oil delivery commitments,” Malmendier Legal wrote in the complaint, according to Handelsblatt.

Russian conductor Valery Gergiev has been expelled from his position as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music for his reluctance to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the academy has said.

The academy, which cited his relationship with the Kremlin and Putin, said it had demanded Gergiev take a stand against the invasion.

“Through his close ties with the Russian government which today is attacking Ukraine, we find that he has acted in a way that we cannot afford not to distance ourselves from,” Susanne Ryden, president of the academy, told the AFP news agency.

“This is unacceptable and not something the academy can be associated with.”

Moscow and Kyiv say they have exchanged 20 soldiers each in their latest prisoner swap.

“Another exchange of prisoners, another moment of joy,” Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said on Telegram. “We have managed to free 20 people.”

They were “14 soldiers of Ukraine’s army, four members of the territorial defence, a member of the national guard and a member of Ukraine’s navy”, Yermak said.

There were also “people that the Russians detained in Olenivka prison and in the temporarily occupied areas of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions”, he added.

The US will look at future OPEC+ meetings to gauge Saudi Arabia’s stance on Russia’s aggression in Ukraine as it reviews relations with Riyadh, White House spokesman John Kirby has said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has been quoted as saying that the goals of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine have not changed, but that they could be achieved through negotiations.

The comments to the Russian newspaper Izvestia were the latest in a series of statements this week stressing Moscow’s openness to talks – a change of tone that follows a run of humiliating defeats for Russian forces in Ukraine.

“The direction has not changed, the special military operation continues, it continues in order for us to achieve our goals,” Peskov was quoted as saying. “However, we have repeatedly reiterated that we remain open to negotiations to achieve our objectives.”

Ukraine could extradite Russian war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court (ICC) even though Moscow is not a member, the tribunal’s prosecutor has said.

Kyiv authorities could send Russians to the Hague-based court if trials could not take place in Ukraine for legal reasons, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said.

“Legally, yes, it wouldn’t represent an obstacle to our jurisdiction,” Khan told journalists at the headquarters of the EU’s judicial agency, Eurojust.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said that Spain is sending four medium-range air defence systems to Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said the older Hawk launchers from Madrid would complement more modern systems being supplied by France, Germany and the US.

“We have seen that when we mobilise, when we call on NATO allies to do more, they’re actually doing more, and that’s making a huge difference,” Stoltenberg said after the NATO defence ministers meet.

NATO defence ministers have discussed how to prepare for a potential Russian nuclear attack against Ukraine and maximise the alliance’s nuclear deterrent.

“NATO’s nuclear deterrence preserves peace, prevents coercion and deters aggression,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after the gathering in Brussels. Putin’s “nuclear rhetoric is dangerous and irresponsible”, he said.

Ministers of 29 of the 30 alliance’s member states took part in a classified meeting of the so-called “Nuclear Planning Group” to assess the latest developments and threats by Putin.

France, currently the only nuclear power in the EU, abstained from the consultations as usual since it relies on the principle of “nuclear independence”.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has warned Moscow its forces would be “annihilated” by the West’s military response if Putin uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

“Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the member states, and the United States and NATO are not bluffing neither,” Borrell said at the opening of a Diplomatic Academy in Belgium.

“Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian army will be annihilated.”

Russia has said it will help residents leave the Moscow-occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson after Kremlin-backed authorities there asked for aid following a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“The government took the decision to organise assistance for the departure of residents of the [Kherson] region to other regions of the country,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on state television.

“We will provide everyone with free accommodation and everything necessary,” he said.

Moscow has submitted concerns to the United Nations about an agreement on Black Sea grain exports, and is prepared to reject renewing the deal next month unless its demands are addressed, Russia’s Geneva UN ambassador has told Reuters.

In an interview with Reuters, Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Moscow had delivered a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday setting out a list of complaints. UN officials are due in Moscow on Sunday to discuss the renewal of the agreement.

“If we see nothing is happening on the Russian side of the deal – export of Russian grains and fertilisers – then excuse us, we will have to look at it in a different way,” he said.

Asked if Russia might withhold support for the grains deal’s renewal over the concerns, he said: “There is a possibility … We are not against deliveries of grains but this deal should be equal, it should be fair and fairly implemented by all sides.”