German chancellor says no reason to hold up return of turbine behind energy standoff; UN says number of border crossings from Ukraine passes 10m mark

Mykola Tochytskyi, deputy minister of foreign affairs, has repeated Ukraine’s request for the skies over nuclear installations to be closed to prevent a potential accident and their misuse. He posted to Twitter saying:

The Russian leadership openly threatens the world with its ability to use nuclear weapons, backed by the clear calls to do so by the Russian state media.

For the first time in history, civil nuclear facilities have been turned into military targets and springboards for the Russian army in breach of the non-proliferation provisions on peaceful use of nuclear energy.

First grain ship to leave Odesa since invasion reaches Turkish waters; Moscow says US is sharing intelligence with Ukrainian forces. This live blog is closed.

• Russia claims US ‘directly involved’ in Ukraine war

Ukraine’s ministry of defence quoted Scots poet Robert Burns’ Scots Wha Hae this morning while issuing what it claims are the latest casualty figures that it has inflicted on Russian forces.

They claim to have killed approximately 41,170 Russian troops, as well as destroying more than 1,750 tanks, 4,014 armoured combat vehicles, 223 jets and 191 helicopters. The claims have not been independently verified.

Liberating the city is one thing, but liberating the whole Kherson region is something else. We know it won’t happen now, but still have hope.

The roads of the region are dotted with numerous checkpoints, and you can always hear bombing raids. There are many soldiers in the cities.

Rare public comments expose tensions inside the ranks of Russia’s army over the invasion of Ukraine

A group of Russian soldiers have accused their commanders of jailing them in eastern Ukraine for refusing to take part in the war, in a rare public exposure of tensions inside the ranks of Russia’s army over the invasion.

Maxim Grebenyuk, a lawyer who runs the Moscow-based advocacy organisation Military Ombudsman, said at least four Russian soldiers had filed written complaints with the investigative committee, demanding punishment for the superiors who oversaw their detainment.

City’s mayor condemns attack on medical facilities; former UK PM David Cameron also among those now blacklisted

• What we know on day 159 of the invasion

Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has posted to Telegram to say that two men were injured by shelling at 7am today in the Saltivka region of Kharkiv. One of the men, aged 72, subsequently died in hospital. The claim has not been independently verified.

About 300 people are now considered missing during the hostilities in the Kyiv region. The 216 bodies found have not yet been identified. An appropriate DNA selection procedure was carried out. I hope that thanks to cooperation with relatives, we will be able to identify these persons.

It is not only that some citizens are now in captivity. While documenting war crimes in the Kyiv region, we found out that many people are currently being held on the territory of Belarus.

First grain ship departs from Odesa as part of Turkey-brokered export deal; Russia says five injured in Black Sea drone attack

• Russia-Ukraine war: see all our coverage

Looming battles will be crucial for course of war, warns intelligence chief

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Russia is moving large numbers of troops to Ukraine’s south for battles against the country’s forces through the newly occupied territories and Crimea, according to Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence.

If Russia won, it would try to capture more territory, said Vadym Skibitsky. “They are increasing their troop numbers, preparing for our counteroffensive [in Ukraine’s south] and perhaps preparing to launch an offensive of their own. The south is key for them, above all because of Crimea,” he said.

Wives of prisoners unsure whether loved ones survived blast in Olenivka as Russia and Ukraine blame each other

The families of Ukrainian prisoners of war being held in a jail in Russian-occupied Donetsk that was bombed said they are desperate for news.

The prisoners include members of the Azov battalion who were trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, according to earlier statements by Russia’s ministry of defence. The prison is located in the town of Olenivka, just 10 kilometres from Ukraine’s frontlines.

Russia and Ukraine both launch investigations into attack that killed at least 40 Ukrainian PoWs; Ukraine says it is ready to resume grain exports from ports

• Russia-Ukraine war: see all our coverage

Russia and Ukraine have both launched criminal investigations into strikes that have reportedly killed at least 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were held at a pre-trial detention centre in the village of Olenivka, after both countries blamed the other side for the attack.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has accused Russia of a “petrifying war crime” over the killings and called on world leaders to “recognise Russia as a terrorist state”.

Ukraine has said it is ready for grain exports to leave its ports again but is waiting for the go-ahead from the United Nations, which it hoped it would receive later on Friday.

Horrific video has emerged that appears to show a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian prisoner, who other reports suggest was subsequently murdered. The footage, reviewed by the Guardian, was originally posted on pro-Russian Telegram channels. Aric Toler at investigative outlet Bellingcat, suggested that the video – featuring a Russian soldier, wearing a distinctive black wide-brimmed hat, approaching another figure who has his hands bound and is lying face down with the back of his trousers cut away – appeared to be authentic .

At least five people have been killed and seven injured in a strike on a bus stop in the city of Mykolaiv, according to the regional governor, Vitaliy Kim. Graphic images from the scene show the street littered with bodies.

Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday that Russia staunchly supported China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, after the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, warned the US president, Joe Biden, against “playing with fire” over Taiwan in a phone call on Thursday.

Germany’s economy minister said on Friday that putting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline into operation was not an option as this would only play into the hands of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. There is growing anger in Germany over soaring energy prices.

Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian operative who was subjected to US sanctions on Friday, has been charged with using political groups in the US to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including during the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

The US treasury department said on Friday it had imposed sanctions on another individual alongside Ionov, as well as on four entities that support the Kremlin’s global malign influence and election interference operations, including in the US and Ukraine.

Belarus recalled its UK ambassador on Friday in response to what it called “hostile and unfriendly” actions by London.

North Macedonia plans to donate an unspecified number of Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine as it seeks to modernise its own military to meet Nato standards, its defence ministry said on Friday.

Germany would deliver 16 Biber bridge-layer tanks to Ukrainian forces, the German defence ministry said.

A Ukrainian court on Friday reduced to 15 years a life sentence handed to a Russian soldier in May for pre-meditated murder in the country’s first war crimes trial.

A Russian ammunition depot in the southern Kherson region had been destroyed, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.

The UK defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said Russian forces in Ukraine are in “a very difficult spot”, and that Putin’s strategy was akin to putting his forces through a meat grinder. In his opinion, he said, Russia was “certainly not able to occupy the country. They may be able to carry on killing indiscriminately and destroying as they go, but that is not a victory.”

Footage shows soldier with knife and surgical gloves mutilating prisoner as he lies down with hands bound

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Horrific video has emerged that appears to show a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian prisoner who other reports suggest was subsequently murdered.

The footage, reviewed by the Guardian, was originally posted on pro-Russian Telegram channels.