Ukraine

Explosions and smoke were observed today by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, stemming from a nearby auxiliary facility that the plant reported was under attack.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest nuclear facility in Europe and one of the 10 largest globally, has been under Russian occupation since March 2022.

The IAEA team heard the blasts and saw smoke coming from the direction of the facility, according to Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. The plant's staff informed the team that the auxiliary site was struck by shelling and drones starting around 9 a.m. local time, coinciding with military activity audible to the IAEA personnel.

Map of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast. (Nizar al-Rifai/The Kyiv Independent)

Smoke from the targeted area remained visible to the team into the afternoon, despite the facility being located 1,200 meters from the plant's site perimeter. The incident is the latest in a string of recent events highlighting the persistent nuclear safety risks stemming from Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“Any attack in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant – regardless of the intended target – poses potential risks also for nuclear safety and must be avoided,” Grossi said. "Once again, I call for maximum military restraint near nuclear facilities to prevent the continued risk of a nuclear accident."

Meanwhile, Russia also appears to be constructing power lines in occupied southern Ukraine, a move that could link the Zaporizhzhia plant to Russia's energy grid, the New York Times reported on May 27, citing a new Greenpeace report.

Satellite imagery featured in the Greenpeace report indicates that since early February 2025, Russian forces have laid over 80 kilometers (49 miles) of high-voltage lines along the Sea of Azov coastline, connecting occupied Mariupol and Berdyansk.

Experts from Greenpeace believe this construction aims to connect these new lines to a major substation near Mariupol, which could then be linked to the Zaporizhzhia plant, located approximately 225 kilometers (139 miles) away.

Read also: Russia launched record 6,129 drones against Ukraine during July, smashing previous month’s high

Occupation authorities force parents in occupied Kherson Oblast to obtain Russian passports or risk losing parental rights, the Center of National Resistance reported on July 30.

"These are not documents. They are instruments of terror," Kherson Oblast Governor Ivan Dudary told the center.

Russia conducts forced passportization in the occupied territories as it aims to establish its control and erase the identity of Ukrainians living under occupation.

In the village of Askaniya-Nova in occupied Kherson Oblast, parents have been threatened with the removal of their children or loss of parental rights if they do not obtain Russian passports.

Askaniya-Nova is located deep within occupied territory and about 52 kilometers (32 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory in Kherson Oblast.

Without obtaining a Russian passport, Ukrainian civilians living under occupation cannot receive medical assistance, pass military checkpoints, and risk mobilization, the Center of National Resistance reported.

"Parents are manipulated because of their children, and children are manipulated because of their education. As of today, it is just impossible to survive in occupied territories without Russian documents," Kateryna Rashevska, legal advisor at the Regional Center for Human Rights in Kyiv, previously told the Kyiv Independent.

A map showing Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine's Kherson Oblast as of 2025. (The Kyiv Independent)

Read also: Russia is forcing Ukrainians in occupied territories to watch Kremlin TV — but it’s not quite going to plan

A delegation of sanctioned Russian officials, including the chair of the upper house of Russia's parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, arrived in Switzerland to attend the 6th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva, Russian state-controlled media reported on July 28.

The Russian delegation, which also includes Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev and Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy, all under EU and Swiss sanctions for supporting Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was granted temporary entry permission by Swiss authorities, according to Swiss media outlet Blick.

Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) explained that under its host-state agreement with the IPU, it is obliged to facilitate the participation of official delegates in international events held on Swiss territory.

According to the FDFA, exceptions to entry bans can be granted under Swiss law "particularly if the person is traveling to attend an international conference."

According to a provisional list of attendees published by the conference organizers and cited by Blick, both Russian and Ukrainian delegations are registered for the event, which is taking place from July 29 to 31 at the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Ukraine's delegation is reportedly led by Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk and includes four members. Russia's delegation includes 13 officials.

Matviyenko, sanctioned by the U.S., EU, and Switzerland since 2014 for her role in the annexation of Crimea and her continued support for Russia's war against Ukraine, delivered a speech at the Women Speakers' Summit, a side event of the conference, on July 28.

Speaking from the podium in Geneva, she repeated standard Kremlin propaganda narratives, accusing Ukraine of targeting civilians in Donetsk Oblast and justifying Russia's invasion as a necessary intervention to "stop the bloodshed."

Matviyenko's remarks come as Russia continues to escalate its attacks on Ukrainian cities, striking civilian infrastructure and causing civilian casualties. The most recent attack on Kyiv, on July 28, left eight people injured — among them a 3-year-old child.

Matviyenko also claimed that the West was waging an "information war" against Russia and called for the lifting of international sanctions. Matviyenko invited leaders from other countries to visit Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.

The IPU, founded in 1889, brings together parliamentary leaders from almost all UN member states. Although the war in Ukraine is not officially on the agenda, the conference includes panels on "parliamentary cooperation and multilateralism for peace" and "a peaceful future in a turbulent world."

Read also: ‘I already know the answer’ — Trump to shorten Ukraine deadline for Putin to 10–12 days

A teenage girl from Mariupol who lived in Russia for three years has been brought back to Ukraine. She continued studying at a Ukrainian school online, even in Russia.

Source: Bring Kids Back UA on Facebook

Details: The girl and her family fled Mariupol in 2022, when the city was under occupation. Even amidst a perilous and hostile environment in the Russian Federation, she continued her education at a Ukrainian school online.

"Before reaching adulthood, she began devising a plan to return to her homeland – and she finally succeeded. Today, she is safe on the territory of free Ukraine," states the humanitarian organisation.

Her return was facilitated by the efforts of Bring Kids Back UA and the assistance of the Helping to Leave team.

"We won’t stop until every child and every teenager comes home to the people who are waiting for them," Bring Kids Back UA affirms.

Background: Earlier, a group of Ukrainian children was brought back from Russian occupation. Among them is a five-year-old boy taken forcibly from his mother and deported to the Russian Federation, as well as a young man grappling with psychological issues stemming from the Russian invasion.

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Operators of the 424th Svarog Battalion of the Unmanned Systems Forces have destroyed an experimental Russian KOP-2 electronic warfare (EW) system on one of the fronts [KOP stands for "Detection and Suppression Complex" in Russian – ed.].

Source: 424th Svarog Battalion

Details: Ukrainian troops stated that this rare and expensive EW system was Russia’s attempt to counter Ukrainian drones.

The KOP-2 scans the radio spectrum across a wide frequency range, detects the channels used by UAVs and attempts to jam them with powerful interference. It is typically deployed to protect high-value military assets, particularly air defence systems.

However, under real combat conditions, the system failed to withstand attacks from Ukrainian drones. The first strike damaged the equipment and the second one destroyed the Russian system completely.

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Hey all!

This feels like a weird request, so I'm hoping to pick the brains of anyone familiar with Ukrainian culture, as both an authenticity check, and to make sure this project wouldn't come off as disrespectful, so let me know what you think and don't pull any punches.

I'm a surgical tech in the US, and one of the surgeons I work with is involved with a program that helps train Ukrainian doctors in specific types of surgeries that have a heightened demand from all the wartime injuries coming from Putin's dumb fucking war.

During an operation, this doc mentioned wanting to get a scrub cap that featured a fusion of traditional Ukrainian folk embroidery and iconography relevant to his practice (surgical instruments? The hospital logo? I'll have to follow up with him to see specifically what he meant).

Anyway, hearing all that, the whole time I was thinking "I can make that happen..."

So, the first question is SHOULD I make that happen? The fusion bit especially strikes me as culturally risky, especially since this dude is going to be standing across the OR bed from people who live that culture... Would it come off as disrespectful at all?

If it passes the first check, are there elements of the design I should gravitate toward or steer away from? Looking at this article, it sounds like different patterns have different meanings, so I don't want to submit a design filled with iconography relevant to like fishing or something: shooting for medical / healing themes, or anything that promotes concepts like partnership or defense / military victory.

And finally, the cap itself probably wouldn't be allowed if it was authentic embroidery - it'd have to meet all the criteria for surgical scrub attire / laundering, so my thought is to whip up a custom pattern on Photoshop, then submit that to a company that can make custom prints of fabric (not decals, but actual prints) for a sheet of cotton that looks like the embroidery, then take that fabric to someone who makes scrub caps (got a few local options for that last bit).

Then doc can rep for Ukraine in the OR!

Thoughts?