September 2, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Russian forces have suffered "significant losses" in the southern region of Kherson following the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched earlier this week, Ukraine's military said Friday.

Operational Command South claimed that a range of targets had been struck, including a ferry crossing.

According to Operational Command South, three important bridges across the Dnipro river— Antonivskyi, Kakhovskyi and Dariivskyi — are ongoing targets.

Ukrainian forces have been trying to prevent Russian troops from resupplying their units north of the river, essentially cutting off Russian defensive positions.

However, Russian forces continue to shell more than a dozen Ukrainian settlements behind a front line that runs roughly along Kherson's northern border.

There has been little indication of territory changing hands in the area. 

A cargo vessel carrying 3,000 metric tons of corn from Ukraine that was stranded in the Bosporus Strait has been anchored and traffic has resumed, Turkey's General Directorate of Coastal Safety said Friday. 

The ship, Lady Zehma, was traveling from the Black Sea to Ravena, Italy when it ran aground due to rudder failure and became stranded on Thursday. 

The ship has been towed and is now anchored in Istanbul's Bebek Bay, the General Directorate tweeted Friday. 

Traffic had been suspended, but has since resumed, it added. 

Ahead of a G7 meeting to discuss setting a price cap on Russian oil, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow would no longer supply places that choose to implement such restrictions.

G7 finance ministers are expected to meet Friday to discuss setting a price cap on Russian oil. 

"This is the most effective way, we believe, to hit hard at Putin's revenue and doing so will result in not only a drop in Putin's oil revenue, but also global energy prices as well," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Novak called the proposals to impose restrictions "completely absurd" and said they could destroy the global oil market, TASS reported.

Most of the international team of nuclear experts visiting the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Thursday have left, after overcoming initial challenges in reaching the facility, including an hours-long delay and a drive through an active war zone.

The visit by the team of 14 experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including its chief Rafael Grossi, came at a crucial moment for the plant, which has endured constant shelling and raised fears of a nuclear accident.

Their trip was mired in risk as shelling had broken out on Thursday, with both Russian and Ukrainian officials confirming that the nearby city of Enerhodar had endured a morning of bombardment.

Mortar shelling by Russians forced one of the the plant's two working reactors to shut down on the same day, Ukraine's nuclear operator Energoatom said Thursday, while Ukrainian officials accused Russian forces of shelling the IAEA mission's pre-agreed route to the plant.

Grossi said that his team were determined to visit the plant, despite the bombardment. "Having come this far, I was not going to stop and with my courageous team we moved in. There were moments where fire was obvious," he told reporters after the visit.

Ongoing mission: The IAEA chief has now left the plant, however Grossi said the UN nuclear watchdog is "not going anywhere" and will have a "continued presence" there.

"We are not going anywhere. The IAEA is now there at the plant and it's not moving. It's going to stay there. We're going to have a continued presence there at the plant," he said.

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The Ukrainian military says the situation in the eastern Donetsk region is virtually unchanged, despite weeks of efforts by Russian forces and their allies in the Donbas militias to take new territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's declared objective is to take all of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, but Ukrainian forces still control more than one-third of Donetsk.

The Ukrainian military's General Staff said Thursday that once again the Russians had tried to attack in several directions, toward the city of Sloviansk and the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

In each instance, the General Staff said, Russian forces had been unsuccessful and had withdrawn.

It spoke of heavy attacks with tanks, artillery and mortars in the south where Ukrainian forces are trying to weaken Russian defenses.

According to the General Staff, the Russians had fired on 15 settlements in the region, mostly along the borders of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, which have been an active front line for more than two months.

It was a chilling shooting: Russian soldiers caught on camera killing unarmed Ukrainian civilians as they walked away from an encounter on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.

CNN first reported on the shooting in May, after obtaining exclusive surveillance video of what is being investigated as a war crime, a shooting targeting civilians.

Now, Ukrainian prosecutors say they have informed Russia that their pre-trial investigation has zeroed in one of the Russian perpetrators they believe is responsible.

The Bucha Prosecutors' Office in the Kyiv region says CNN's exclusive reporting was instrumental in helping identify the Russian soldier.

Prosecutors say the suspect is Nikolay Sergeevich Sokovikov, adding that Russia was informed of his charges of "violation of the laws and customs of war" and "intentional murder."

CNN has requested comment from Russia's defense ministry but has not had a response. CNN also asked the Russian MOD for response to our original report in May and never received a reply.

Read the full story here.

The chairman of Russian oil and gas giant Lukoil has died after falling out of the window of a hospital in Moscow, according to Russian state media.

"The man fell out of the sixth-floor window and died as a result of his injuries," a source told TASS.

Lukoil confirmed the death of its chairman on Thursday in a statement published on its website.

Lukoil, Russia's second biggest oil and gas company, made headlines in March when it called "for the soonest termination of the armed conflict" in Ukraine.

"We express our sincere empathy for all victims, who are affected by this tragedy," the company's board of directors said in a statement to shareholders, staff and customers at the time. "We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy."

The firm produces more than 2% of the world's crude oil and employs over 100,000 people.

RIA Novosti quoted a law enforcement source Thursday as saying Maganov "most likely committed suicide."

"Investigating authorities are working on the spot to establish the causes of the incident," the source told RIA.

At least five prominent Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide since late January, according to previous CNN reporting.

The Ukrainian military says it is keeping up the pressure on Russian forces in the southern Kherson region, with attacks on several targets Thursday, including bridges across the Dnipro river.

Its Operational Command South said: "Our missile and artillery units conducted fire missions on three control points, a radar station, two points of concentration of enemy manpower, weapons and equipment." 

It added that fire against the Kakhovskyi Bridge left several additional holes, which meant it remained unusable to occupying forces.

Ukrainian forces have focused in the last two months on degrading Russian supply lines, ammunition depots and rear bases in the south.

Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Kremlin said Thursday, in a snub of the former Soviet leader with whom the Russian President had a fraught relationship.

A farewell ceremony for Gorbachev, which will be open to the public, is due to take place on Saturday, followed by the funeral later on the same day at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.

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