- The final working reactor at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been disconnected from Ukraine’s grid after Russian shelling disrupted power lines, state nuclear operator Energoatom said.
- Russia has revoked the licence of one of the country’s last major independent media companies, the Novaya Gazeta, in a move the newspaper’s Nobel Peace Prize winning editor-in-chief has called “a political hit job, without the slightest legal basis”.
- The European Union has signed a deal to release a further 500 million euros ($497m) in planned aid to Ukraine, as the bloc met to discuss measures to rein in soaring energy prices, including a possible price cap on gas.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed progress in a counteroffensive launched last week, saying Ukrainian forces have taken from Russian forces two settlements in the south and one in the east, without giving specific locations.
- Russia’s defence ministry said its forces destroyed a US supplied HIMARS rocket system in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
27 minutes ago (19:47 GMT)
US basketball player Brittney Griner’s Russian detention hits 200-day mark
Two hundred days have passed since WNBA star Brittney Griner was first detained in a Russian airport.
The Phoenix Mercury centre was arrested on Feb. 17 with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.
Griner, 31, was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony on Aug. 4 on charges of drug smuggling and possession charges.
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On Monday, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association issued a plea on social media for all US union members to sign a Change.org petition in support of Griner.
United States President Joe Biden has said Griner is being “wrongfully detained.”
Diplomats for Russia and the US have reportedly discussed a prisoner swap to bring Griner and fellow American Paul Whelan home in exchange for the release of convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.
