Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Ryabkov has sternly warned Washington against supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine, noting that the U.S. is balancing on the edge of direct involvement in the conflict. Sergey Ryabkov also pointed to Russia’s military doctrine that stipulates the use of nuclear weapons in case of a threat to the existence of the country. “It is a road to nowhere fraught with grave consequences, the responsibility for which will lie entirely with Washington”, Sergey Ryabkov further said.

At the end of his visit to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi said that during the brief mission the inspectors had not been able to visit all the sites, including the crisis headquarters, to talk to Ukrainian specialists.Two IAEA experts will stay at the nuclear facility, Rafael Grossi confirmed. The Kremlin has described as “very positive” the arrival of IAEA at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine again blamed each other of shelling Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a demilitarized zone around the nuclear power plant. Zelensky, who has urged the withdrawal of the Russian military from Zaporizhzhia, said he has not heard the IAEA push Russia on the matter.

Ukrainian forces continue their counteroffensive to liberate the city of Kherson, shelling at the reinforcements the Russian military command is trying to send across the Dnieper River. Ukraine’s forces have destroyed artillery systems near the town of Enerhodar, close to the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Russian troops shelled the city of Kharkiv and other towns and villages in Eastern Ukraine, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.