Ukraine says cell has Lord’s Prayer carved into the wall in Ukrainian

• What we know on day 203 of the invasion

Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has repeated his refrain that people should evacuate where possible from areas that remain under the control of pro-Russia forces or are being targeted by Russian strikes. Posting images to Telegram of what he claims are recent attacks by Russia on Kramatorsk, Kyrylenko says:

The rocket fell right in the middle of a residential quarter and partially damaged at least three private houses; the garage burned down as a result of the fire that broke out. The Russians are deliberately terrorising the local population. Under such conditions, the only correct way out for civilians is to evacuate to safer regions of Ukraine. Don’t become a target for Russian terrorist forces. Evacuate!

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says around 8,000 sq km have been liberated in counteroffensive in north-east Ukraine

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Ukraine has set its sights on freeing all territory occupied by invading Russian forces after driving them back in a speedy counteroffensive in the north-east. In an evening address, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about 8,000 sq km (3,100 square miles) have been liberated so far, apparently all in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv. “Stabilisation measures” had been completed in about half of that territory, Zelenskiy said, “and across a liberated area of about the same size, stabilisation measures are still ongoing”.

Ukraine’s deputy defence Minister Hanna Malyar said 150,000 people had been liberated from Russian rule in the area of Balakliia, a crucial military supply hub taken by Ukrainian forces late last week.

The White House said the United States is likely to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine in “coming days”. Russian forces have left defensive positions, particularly in and around Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, a US spokesperson said.

While Ukraine celebrates the tremendous gains its military has made in its dramatic counter-offensive, officials remain stoic about the challenges ahead in the newly reoccupied territory. Lesia Vasylenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, spoke of discovering the beheaded bodies of Ukrainian military, human faeces everywhere, widespread looting and terrorised teenagers who were still too scared to leave their basements. “Liberation uncovers many crimes. It’s as if we are on the verge of hundreds, if not thousands of Buchas, just of a smaller scale,” Vasylenko said, referencing the civilian mass graves and evidence of torture uncovered in the town of Bucha when Ukrainian forces recaptured the Kyiv region. “But whatever the scale there will be tribunals, retribution and justice.”

Ukrainian officials said there was a torture chamber set up by the Russian military in now liberated Balakliia. Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the Kharkiv region national police investigation department, said that 40 people had been detained during the occupation.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces warned that Russian forces were continuing to loot as they withdrew from occupied territories. On a stretch of highway heading into Russian territory, Ukrainian officials spotted civilian vehicles with licence plates from the Kharkiv region, driven by Russian military and weighed down with looted belongings. In the south, there were reports of Russian occupants breaking the gates of private garages and taking cars, as well as removing furniture.

Russian forces continued to hit a number of civilian and civilian infrastructure facilities throughout the eastern and southern portions of Ukraine on Tuesday, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said. Via air attacks and missile strikes and high mobility artillery rocket systems, Russian force attacked settlements in the Luhansk oblast and the Donetsk oblast in the east, and the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Cherkasy oblasts in the south.

Russia covertly spent more than $300m since 2014 to try to influence politicians and other officials in more than two dozen countries, according to declassified cables released by the US. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has said he is concerned Russia could try to “stir the pot” in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in order to distract from Ukraine. He added that Russia could also use its influence in the region to help “calm the waters”.

Ukraine officials make claim Russian volunteers are refusing to serve in combat conditions after their counter-offensive

• What we know on day 201 of the invasion

Kirill Stremousov, who is one of the leaders of the Russian-imposed authorities in occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine, has posted to Telegram this morning a message that references the reported territorial losses for Russian forces to the north, while striking a defiant tone about the future of Kherson. The post reads:

Stremousov is at his workplace in Kherson. Kherson is and will be a Russian city. No one is going to surrender the city, let alone retreat.

Along the entire perimeter of the Kherson region, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has built lines of defence and nothing threatens the city of Kherson and the Kherson region.

Disruption to water and energy supplies is routine and the liberating troops have found bodies of civilians showing signs of torture

Air sirens sounded throughout the day in Kharhiv. At least four Russian missiles hit the north-eastern city in two attacks on Monday, killing at least one person, injuring others and causing further disruption to the city’s electricity and water supply.

While the liberation of Russian-occupied parts of the Kharkiv region has been celebrated by Ukrainians across the country, the situation in the city – which was half surrounded by Russian forces until just a week ago – has in some ways become more precarious.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities have reported finding the bodies of civilians with apparent signs of torture, as prosecutors gathered more evidence of potential war crimes.

Mayor of Kharkiv says strike that knocked out power and water was act of ‘revenge’ by Russia

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
  

Russia targeted infrastructure facilities in central and eastern Ukraine on Sunday evening in a response to a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kharkiv province that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling.

The mayor of Kharkiv city, Ihor Terekhov, said a strike had knocked out power and water to much of the city, in what he described as an act of “revenge” by Russia for Ukraine’s recent battlefield successes. There were reports of blackouts in Dnipro, Poltava and other eastern cities, potentially affecting millions of civilians.

Cruise missiles hit infrastructure in what Ukraine says is revenge attack over recent rapid gains

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates

Russian strikes have knocked out power and water to much of the Kharkiv region, plunging its cities into darkness and cutting power in hospitals in what Ukraine described as an act of “revenge” by Russia for its recent battlefield successes.

Over the last few days, Ukrainian forces have recaptured the majority of Russian-occupied territory in the region in a lightning offensive.

Russian army pulls back thousands of troops and Kyiv takes control of vital town of Izium

• Ukraine-Russia war: latest updates

Ukraine’s lightning counter-offensive in the north-east of the country has inflicted an extraordinary defeat on Moscow, prompting the Russian army to pull back thousands of troops after suffering a series of battlefield defeats.

In a day of momentous developments, Ukrainian forces confirmed the liberation of the crucial rail hub of Kupiansk and shortly after seized Izium, the major base for Moscow’s forces in the Kharkiv region.

Russia sends reinforcements to Kharkiv region amid Ukrainian counter-offensive; Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant situation increasingly precarious, says UN watchdog

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Russia said on Friday it was dispatching reinforcements to the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces have announced robust gains as part of a broader counter-offensive. Russian state media broadcast footage of columns of Russian tanks, support vehicles and artillery travelling along paved roads and dirt tracks. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said his forces had liberated more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region and that fighting continued in the eastern Donbas and the south.

The European Commission has urged EU states to reassess the terms on which they grant visas to Russian travellers and to root out applicants that pose a security threat. “We should not be naive, Putin’s aim is to destroy the EU and he would like to attack us where we are weakest,” the EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, said on Friday.

The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Friday that it had pushed back against Russian attacks near 10 settlements, the Kyiv Independent reported. The staff said Russian forces had launched more than 12 missiles and more than 12 airstrikes on Ukrainian territory in the past 24 hours.

Shelling has destroyed power infrastructure at Enerhodar, the Ukrainian city where staff operating the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant live. The shelling possed a growing threat to the plant, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday.

The UN nuclear watchdog said conditions at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant were increasingly precarious and that a safety zone around it needed to be immediately established to prevent a nuclear accident. The International Atomic Energy Agency director, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said on Friday that there was minimal chance of re-establishing reliable offsite power lines to the plant and that its Ukrainian operator was considering shutting down the only remaining operating reactor.

EU finance ministers supported a €5bn ($5bn) loan for Ukraine to help maintain the country’s schools, hospitals and other needed operations amid Russia’s invasion. The loan, agreed on Friday, will be backed by guarantees of EU member states and is part of an overall €9bn package announced in May.

The EU executive have pledged to devise unprecedented measures in the coming days to address an energy price shock as a result of Russia’s war on Ukraine, including a controversial gas price cap that could further anger the Kremlin. European energy ministers tasked the European Commission with working through this weekend to draw up legal texts that will include emergency funding for consumers struggling to afford soaring bills.

A Russian-appointed official in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region announced on Friday that civilians were being evacuated from three of the region’s Russian-controlled territories that have come under threat from the Ukrainian counter-offensive.