The risk of disaster at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian troops is "increasing every day", the mayor of the city where the facility is located has said.
The Zaporizhzhia power plant - Europe's largest - was seized by Russian soldiers in the opening days of the invasion and has remained on the front line ever since.
This week the facility has come under fire repeatedly, with Kyiv and Moscow trading blame for the dangerous escalation.
The mayor of the southeastern city of Energodar, where the plant is located, said "the risks are increasing every day".
"What is happening there is outright nuclear terrorism," Dmytro Orlov told AFP by telephone from the city of Zaporizhzhia, which remains under Ukrainian control.
"It can end unpredictably at any moment."
Kyiv has accused Moscow of basing troops and weapons in the station, launching attacks and using the atomic plant as a shield from returning fire.
G7 urges Russia to withdraw from Ukraine nuclear plant
Ukraine is targeting Russian soldiers who shoot at Europe's largest nuclear power station or use it as a base to shoot from, as G7 nations, fearing a nuclear catastrophe, called on Russia to withdraw its forces from the plant.
"Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots using the plant as cover, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening address yesterday.
Mr Zelensky, who did not give any details, repeated claims that Russia was using the plant as nuclear blackmail.
The plant dominates the south bank of a vast reservoir on the Dnipro river. Ukrainian forces controlling the towns and cities on the opposite bank have come under intense bombardment from the Russian-held side.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak accused Russia of "hitting the part of the nuclear power plant where the energy that powers the south of Ukraine is generated".
"The goal is to disconnect us from the (plant) and blame the Ukrainian army for this," Mr Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is seeking to inspect the plant, has warned of a nuclear disaster unless fighting stops. Nuclear experts fear fighting might damage the plant's spent fuel pools or the reactors.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called for the establishment of a demilitarised zone around the Zaporizhzhia facility, which is still being run by Ukrainian technicians.
Ukraine has said for weeks it is planning a counteroffensive to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighbouring Kherson provinces, the largest part of the territory Russia seized after its 24 February invasion and still in Russian hands.
Russian and Ukrainian forces earlier fought for control of Chernobyl, the still-radioactive site of the world's worst nuclear accident, also raising fears of a disaster.
Russia's priority over the past week has likely been to reorient units to strengthen its campaign in southern Ukraine, British military intelligence said in its latest update today.
Russian-backed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in the Donbas continued to attempt assaults to the north of Donetsk city, according to the intelligence update.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 14 August 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 14, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/rRYELPEUjo
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/nJKmgDjAya
Particularly heavy fighting has focused on the village of Pisky, near the site of Donetsk Airport, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.
Ukraine's military command yesterday that "fierce fighting" continued in Pisky, an eastern village which Russia had earlier said it had full control over.
UK also said the Russian assault "likely" aims to secure the "M04 highway", the main approach to Donetsk from the west.
Russia warns it may sever ties with US
Russia's invasion, which it calls a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" its smaller neighbour, has pushed Moscow-Washington relations to a low point, with Russia warning it may sever ties.
The United States has led Ukraine's Western allies in supplying it with weapons to defend itself and punitive sanctions against Moscow.
A senior Russian official on Friday said Moscow had told Washington that if the US Senate passed a law singling out Russia as a "state sponsor of terrorism", diplomatic ties would be badly damaged and could even be broken off.
Yesterday, a senior Russian foreign ministry official warned that any seizure of Russian assets by the United States would completely destroy bilateral relations, TASS reported.
"We warn the Americans of the detrimental consequences of such actions that will permanently damage bilateral relations, which is neither in their nor in our interests," said Alexander Darchiev, head of the ministry's North American Department. It was not clear which assets he was referring to.
Mr Darchiev said US influence on Ukraine had increased to the degree that "Americans are increasingly becoming more and more a direct party in the conflict".
The United States and Europe, wary of being dragged directly into the war, have refused Ukraine's request to establish a no-fly zone to help it protect its skies from Russian missiles and warplanes.
First ship carrying Ukraine wheat under UN deal docks in Turkey
The first ship carrying Ukrainian wheat to be exported under a UN-brokered deal arrived in Istanbul today, the Joint Coordination Centre based in the Turkish city, said.
The Belize-flagged vessel is the first to carry wheat from Ukraine through the Black Sea since Russia's invasion. The Sormovsky had left Ukraine's port of Chornomorsk on Friday.
It was the first shipment of wheat from Ukraine, which, along with Russia, accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports before 24 February, when Moscow launched what it describes as a "special operation" to demilitarise its neighbour.
A total of 18 ships have now departed from Ukraine over the past two weeks, following the deal with Russia to allow a resumption of grain exports from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, after they were stalled for five months due to the war.
Mr Zelensky said that in less than two weeks, Ukraine had managed to export the same amount of grain from three ports as it had done by road for all of July.
"This has already made it possible to reduce the severity of the food crisis," he said.
Ukraine hopes to increase its maritime exports to over 3 million tonnes of grain and other farm products per month in near future.
Ukraine and Russia are major grains exporters. The blockage of Ukrainian ports has trapped tens of millions of grain in the country, raising fears of severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world.
