Russia killed 136 children in Ukraine last year, says UN report; Kyiv accuses Moscow’s forces of hiding bodies in aftermath of Kakhovka dam breach

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The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has called out Russia for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022 and added its armed forces to a global list of offenders, according to a report to the UN security council. The UN also verified that Russian armed forces and affiliated groups injured 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. The forces used 91 children as human shields, according to the report. Guterres was “particularly shocked” by the high number of child casualties, he said in the report, while also saying he was disturbed by the high number of offences against children by Ukrainian forces.

Russia has formed special groups to collect and hide bodies of people killed in the aftermath of Kakhovka dam breach in southern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The Ukrainian president said in a video address on Thursday that the situation in Russian-occupied parts of the region was “catastrophic to put it mildly”.

Ukraine’s prime minister has said its counteroffensive will take time but he is optimistic about its success. Denys Shmyhal’s comments, on the sidelines of a Ukraine reconstruction conference in London on Thursday, came after Zelenskiy said the counteroffensive might be going “slower than desired” but he would not needlessly risk soldiers’ lives to meet international expectations. Moscow had suggested there appeared to have been a break in the counteroffensive’s intensity.

Foreign donors pledged €60bn of new financial support for Ukraine, the UK said, as the international conference in London aimed at funding the country’s reconstruction closed. The commitments from governments and international organisations targeted supporting Ukraine in the short- and medium-term, the British foreign minister, James Cleverly, said on Thursday.

Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles and strike drones at targets in Ukraine early on Thursday, causing damage in the cities of Odesa and Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian officials said.

Russian-backed officials in southern Ukraine have accused Kyiv of using British-supplied long-range missiles to strike a bridge connecting Kherson province with the Crimean peninsula. A series of photos and videos circulating on Telegram on Thursday showed a large crater on the bridge, and debris littering the roads. There were no casualties reported.

Ukraine and Moldova have made good progress on their journey to becoming members of the EU, a European commissioner has said. The EC reportedly made clear that Ukraine had a way to go to complete the seven steps the EU outlined last year when it granted Kyiv the status of a candidate for membership.

Russia is 99.9% certain to quit a UN-brokered deal on the safe wartime passage of Black Sea grain in July as it no longer needs Ukrainian ports to export ammonia, a senior Ukrainian diplomat has said.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy reportedly said Ukrainian spies believed Russia was plotting an incident to release radiation from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, an allegation denied by the Kremlin.

Ukraine deputy defence minister says Russia is continuing efforts to occupy the whole of the Donbas

• What we know on day 481 of the invasion

Ukraine’s state emergency service has issued an image of firefighters battling a blaze in Kherson. Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that “As a result of Russian shelling in Kherson, a gas tank at one of the city’s gas stations and a company warehouse were on fire at night. Three units of equipment and 15 personnel of the state emergency service went to the scene of the fire.”

This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.

Russian-installed official says Ukraine has made new gain on battle front since launch of counter-offensive earlier this month

• What we know on day 480 of the invasion

The Russian military blogger War Gonzo has also reported that Russian troops have abandoned the village of Piatykhatky, on the Zaporizhzhia front. The writer suggests Ukraine has concentrated large reserves in the area, mostly infantry but also “heavy armoured vehicles”, and wonders if Kyiv will activate its reserves for what would probably be a major attack in the area.

If confirmed, it would be Ukraine’s first village gain for nearly a week, and significantly it marks an apparent escalation of the offensive on the most direct route to Crimea, although this is the area where Russian defences are believed to be strongest.

A Russian-installed official acknowledged on Sunday that Ukraine had recaptured a village in the southern Zapororizhzhia region, its first gain on that front since it launched its counteroffensive earlier this month.

The official, Vladimir Rogov, said Ukrainian forces had taken the settlement of Piatykhatky and were entrenching themselves there while coming under fire from Russian artillery.

War blogger also reports recapture of Piatykhatky, which if confirmed would be first village taken in nearly a week

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Ukraine has captured the village of Piatykhatky on the western edge of the Zaporizhzhia front, according to a Russia-appointed official and sources, the first village recaptured by Kyiv’s forces in nearly a week.

In a posting on Telegram on Sunday morning, Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official for the region, said Ukrainian forces had taken the village under their “operational control” after what he described as fierce fighting.

Ukrainian military officials say they are making gradual progress to push Russian forces out of southern sectors of the country

• What we know on day 479 of the invasion

Russia’s defence minister has called for more tanks to be manufactured “to meet the needs of Russian forces” in Ukraine after Kyiv launched a counteroffensive with western arms.

Sergei Shoigu visited a military factory in western Siberia and stressed the need “to maintain the increased production of tanks”, the defence ministry said.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive pushes south towards Mariupol; Putin confirms first nuclear weapons deployed to Belarus

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Centre of fighting has moved as Ukrainian forces slowly push back Russians, says Hanna Maliar, a deputy defence minister

• What we know on day 478 of the invasion

Kherson’s regional authority has said that 1,649 houses in 17 settlements on the right bank of the Dnipro remain flooded after the collapse of the Kakhovka dam. They also claim that 17 settlements remain flooded on the opposite bank, which is occupied by Russian forces.

Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, offers this news update on Telegram of events overnight. It reports:

At night, air defence forces destroyed two “Shahed” drones over the Mykolaiv region, the air force reported.

Also at night, the Russian army fired artillery at residential buildings in Novoberyslav in the Kherson region: a couple died, reported the regional .

Ukraine has retaken more than 100 sq km in counteroffensive, commander claims; UN nuclear watchdog warns Zaporizhzhia power plant situation ‘serious’

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