This was CNBC's live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See here for the latest updates.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned people in Crimea and other heavily occupied areas of Ukraine not to go near Russian military installations as Ukraine appears to step up up its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
"Every day and every night we see new reports of explosions on territory that is temporarily taken by the occupiers. And I am asking now all our people in Crimea, in other regions in the south of Ukraine, in occupied areas of Donbas and Kharkiv region to be very careful," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app during an evening address.
The warning comes amid an increasing number of reports of attacks and explosions on Russian military facilities. Yesterday, a Russian base was attacked in northern Crimea, an incident that Russia said was an act of "sabotage."
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Ukraine has not openly said it was behind a spate of recent attacks but they are seen as part of the country's growing counteroffensive against Russian forces occupying their territory, particularly in the southern Ukraine in Crimea and nearby Kherson.
In other news, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to Lviv in Ukraine on Thursday to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Zelenskyy.
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The three are expected to discuss the ongoing Black Sea Initiative to export grains from Ukraine. Guterres will also meet with Zelenskyy to discuss the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Celebrity chef Jose Andres' organization partners with local Ukrainian orphanage to feed children
The World Central Kitchen, a humanitarian organization dedicated to feeding people in conflict zones, said that it partners with a Ukrainian orphanage to provide meals to 1,000 children.
"1,000 orphans between the ages of 3 and 18 from all across Ukraine temporarily live at a hotel with their guardians near Warsaw, Poland," the organization wrote on Twitter.
"The shelter offers services like education classes and a health clinic. Each day, WCK provides breakfast, lunch and dinner here," the organization added.
Spanish celebrity chef and humanitarian Chef Jose Andres founded the organization and has been operating throughout Ukraine in the days following Russia's full-scale invasion.
— Amanda Macias
Ukraine's state energy company says it was hit with a Russian cyber attack
Ukraine's state energy company said it was targeted by a Russian cyber attack, according to a statement on the Telegram messaging app translated by NBC News.
"The most powerful hacker attack since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation took place on the official website of EnergoAtom State Enterprise," the company said, adding that the cyber attack came from within Russian territory.
"The mentioned attack did not significantly affect the work of the website of and remained invisible to users," the company added.
— Amanda Macias
Ukrainian Emergency Ministry conduct nuclear catastrophe exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia
Ukraine's Emergency Ministry conducts a nuclear catastrophe exercise in Zaporizhzhia in case of a potential accident at the city's nuclear power plant.
Ukraine remains deeply scarred by the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear catastrophe when a Soviet-era reactor exploded and spewed radiation into the atmosphere in the country's north.
Russian forces took over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant a few days after the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
— Dimitar Dilkoff | AFP | Getty Images
Three more vessels carrying a total of 33,750 metric tons of agricultural products leave Ukraine
The organization overseeing the export of agricultural products from Ukraine said that three ships carrying agricultural products left Ukrainian ports today.
Three vessels are carrying a total of 33,750 metric tons of grains and other staples through the humanitarian sea corridor under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
The vessel Petrel is carrying 18,500 metric tons of sunflower meal and is destined for Amsterdam. The ship named Sara is carrying 8,000 metric tons of corn and is headed to Istanbul. The vessel named Efe is also headed to Turkey and is loaded with 7,250 metric tons of sunflower oil.
— Amanda Macias
U.N. secretary-general will not meet with Russian officials during trip
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is not expected to meet with any Russian officials following his visit to Ukraine.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that Guterres will take meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week. He added that Guterres has no plans to hold discussions with Russian officials.
Dujarric said that Guterres will also meet separately with Zelenskyy to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
— Amanda Macias
Security system at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been disconnected, Ukraine says
The head of Zaporizhzhia's regional government said that the security system at the nuclear power plant has been disconnected from external control channels.
"The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is very complicated. A radiation background does not exceed the norms, but the behavior of the Russian occupiers is unpredictable," Oleksandr Starukh said in a daily press conference, according to an NBC News translation.
"The regional authorities are trying to provide people with everything they need in case of an accident," he said, adding that women and children are advised to leave the area.
"All forces and means are ready so that people can evacuate from the unoccupied territory," he said.
— Amanda Macias
Russian military sites in Crimea keep exploding, hinting at growing Ukrainian ambitions and abilities
Crimea is now at the heart of what appears to be an audacious Ukrainian effort to target Russian supply lines and morale.
A series of blasts hit a Russian military depot in the annexed peninsula Tuesday — rocking the relaxed summer holiday destination for the second time in a week and suggesting a growing Ukrainian ability to strike deep behind enemy lines.
It's a significant development that could shift the dynamics of the war as it nears the six-month mark, and which defies warnings from Moscow against attacking a region that holds deep strategic and symbolic value for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Read more here.
— NBC NEWS
About 50 damaged bridges have been replaced, Ukraine's infrastructure minister says
Ukraine's Minister of Infrastructure said that about 50 bridges have been replaced after they were destroyed by Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.
"We have restored about 50 of the 300 destroyed by war transport crossings," wrote Oleksandr Kubrakov on Twitter.
Kubrakov also thanked the Czech government for donating bridges adding that two of the bridges had already been installed.
— Amanda Macias
Nearly 11 million Ukrainians have fled across the border to neighboring countries, U.N. says
Nearly 11 million Ukrainians have fled across the border to neighboring countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the UN Refugee Agency estimates.
More than 3.8 million of those refugees have registered for temporary resident status in another country, according to data collected by the UN Refugee Agency.
"Millions of refugees from Ukraine have crossed borders into neighboring countries," the agency wrote.
"The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance," the agency added.
— Amanda Macias
U.N. secretary-general will visit Ukraine's port of Odesa this week
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to Lviv to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The trio will discuss the ongoing Black Sea Initiative that oversees the export of grains and other agricultural products from Ukraine.
Later in the week, Guterres will visit the port of Odesa, one of the Ukrainian ports reopened through the Black Sea Initiative.
— Amanda Macias
USAID provides $68 million the the World Food Program
The U.S. Agency for International Development will provide more than $68 million in additional funding to the United Nations World Food Program, administration Samantha Power announced.
Power said the funds will allow for the purchase, movement and storage of up to 150,000 metric tons of Ukrainian wheat.
"It's essential that we continue to build on the progress we've seen over the last few weeks so that millions of tons of food currently in storage within the country is allowed to move freely out of Ukrainian ports and into the hands of people across the world struggling to find their next meal," Power wrote in a statement.
Power said that so far, the U.S. has provided nearly $7.6 billion in response to the global food crisis triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine.
— Amanda Macias
Russian shakes up Black Sea fleet command after series of blows in Crimea
Russia's Black Sea fleet based in annexed Crimea has installed a new commander, RIA news agency cited sources as saying, after Russian military bases on the peninsula were rocked by explosions in the past nine days.
If confirmed, the removal of the previous commander Igor Osipov would mark the most prominent sacking of a military official in the nearly six months since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in which it has suffered heavy losses in men and equipment.
State-owned RIA cited the sources as saying the new chief, Viktor Sokolov, was introduced to members of the fleet's military council in the port of Sevastopol.
One source said it was "normal" that the appointment was not publicly announced at a time when Russia was conducting what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
The Black Sea Fleet, which has a revered history in Russia, has suffered several highly public humiliations in the course of the war that President Vladimir Putin launched on Feb. 24.
— Reuters
Russia displays weaponry and equipment captured in war with Ukraine
Here is a selection of images from an exhibition in Moscow of weaponry and equipment that were captured during the military conflict in Ukraine, according to the Russian defense ministry.
-Reuters
Chinese military to take part in joint exercises with Russia
Chinese troops will take part in a joint exercise with Russia, the Chinese defense ministry said on Wednesday.
China's participation in the joint exercises, called the "Vostok-2022" (or "East-2022") exercises and which will take place in Russia, is "unrelated to the current international and regional situation," the ministry said in a statement.
A number of other countries will alos take part including India, Belarus, Tajikistan, and Mongolia.
"China's participation in the exercise is aimed at deepening practical and friendly cooperation with the armies of the participating countries, enhancing the level of strategic cooperation among the participating parties, and strengthening their ability to deal with various security threats," the ministry added, and are part of an ongoing annual cooperation agreement, it said.
— Holly Ellyatt
Pro-Russian breakaway region cozies up to North Korea
The leader of one of the pro-Russian breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine has reportedly pledged to increase cooperation with North Korea, echoing a similar sentiment from Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
North Korean state news agency KCNA reported Wednesday that the secretive country's leader, Kim Jong Un, had received a congratulatory message from Denis Pushilin, head of the so-called "People's Republic of Donetsk" on Aug. 15, in which Pushilin congratulated Kim on the country's national "Liberation Day" and expressed a hope to extend cooperation between North Korea and the separatist region.
"The message expressed the conviction that an equally beneficial bilateral cooperation agreeing with the interests of the peoples of the two countries will be achieved between the People's Republic of Donetsk and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," KCNA reported.
The "People's Republic of Donetsk" is not a country and, while backed by Russia, has little legitimacy on the global stage.
Russia recognized the "independence" of the DPR, and the neighboring breakaway "republic" in Luhansk on Feb. 21 just days before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. But only North Korea and Syria, an ally of Russia, and two other pro-Russian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both in Georgia, followed suit.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russians' security situation in Crimea is deteriorating, UK ministry says
Recent explosions at Russian military facilities in Crimea are evidence of a deteriorating security situation for the Kremlin in a critical region that Russia has controlled since 2014, according to a British assessment released Wednesday.
Russian and Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that a Russian ammunition dump exploded in northern Crimea near Dzhankoi, and smoke was also reported rising from Russia-controlled Gvardeyskoye Airbase in Crimea.
The British Ministry of Defence acknowledged that the causes behind the Dzhankoi and Gvardeyskoye events are still undetermined, "but Russian commanders will highly likely be increasingly concerned with the apparent deterioration in security across Crimea, which functions as [a] rear base area for the occupation."
The press office of the Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Moscow has blamed previous base explosions on lax safety practices or denied them outright, inviting ridicule from Ukraine and its supporters.
Russia invaded Crimea, then part of Ukraine, in 2014 after Ukrainian protesters and widespread civilian unrest ousted a Moscow-friendly government from Kyiv.
—Ted Kemp
'Intense but fully controlled' front line in Ukraine, commander says
The head of Ukraine's armed forces has said that Russian forces continue to advance along the entire front line, which he described as "intense but fully controlled," adding that Russia launches 700 to 800 attacks on Ukraine's positions every day.
"The enemy continues to advance along the entire front line. At the same time, the enemy carries out approximately 700-800 shelling of our positions every day, using from 40 to 60 thousand [pieces of] ammunition," Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in comments published on his Telegram channel after he had spoken to his Canadian counterpart General Wayne Donald Eyre.
"The enemy's main efforts are concentrated on pushing our troops back from the Donetsk oblast [province]," he added.
The port of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Marganets and Nikopol near Zaporizhzhia in the south and Bereznehuvate, near Mykolaiv, were the most affected settlements by "hostile shelling," he added.
He also said the positioning of missile systems along the Belarus-Ukraine border, in particular at the Zyabrovka airfield, "triggers concern."
— Holly Ellyatt
Zelenskyy warns Ukrainians to avoid Russian military installations due to reports of explosions
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked people in Crimea and other heavily occupied areas of Ukraine to not go near Russian military installations amid reports of explosions.
"Every day and every night we see new reports of explosions on territory that is temporarily taken by the occupiers. And I am asking now all our people in Crimea, in other regions in the south of Ukraine, in occupied areas of Donbas and Kharkiv region to be very careful," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app during an evening address.
"Please, do not go near the military installations of the Russian army and all those places where they store ammunition and equipment, where they place their headquarters," he added.
— Amanda Macias
IKEA to liquidate Russian unit as part of sanctions-led pullout
Swedish furniture giant IKEA has decided to liquidate its Russian unit, limited liability company IKEA Dom, further scaling back its operations after more than a decade-long presence in the country, a corporate record showed on Tuesday.
IKEA, the world's biggest furniture brand, shut down its stores in March and said it would sell factories, close offices and reduce its 15,000-strong workforce in Russia.
Ingka Group, IKEA stores owner and one of the world's leading shopping center owners, however, has kept its "Mega" shopping malls in Russia open.
According to the record at Interfax news agency's Spark database of Russian companies on Tuesday, Ingka Holding Europe B.V. decided to liquidate IKEA Dom where it is the sole owner. IKEA Dom was established in July 2006.
In June, Ingka Group said it was open to returning to Russia one day but the conditions were not in place right now. read more Ingka Group did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for a comment on Tuesday.
— Reuters
U.N. secretary-general will visit Ukraine and meet with Zelenskyy
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to Lviv this week to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The trio is expected to discuss the ongoing Black Sea Initiative to export grains from Ukraine.
"It's a chance for [the Secretary General] to see firsthand the results of an initiative that he first presented when he went to Moscow," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a daily press briefing.
"An initiative that is so critically important to hundreds of millions of people, that is part of a bigger package, which includes the export of Russian grain and add fertilizer to market," he added.
The secretary-general will also meet with Zelenskyy to dsicuss the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. He is not expected to speak with any Russian officials while on the U.N. mission.
Later in the week, Guterres will visit the port of Odesa.
— Amanda Macias
Macron speaks to Zelenskyy as concerns over a nuclear accident at Zaporizhzhia mount
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to a French presidential office readout of a phone call between the leaders.
Macron expressed his concern about the threat posed by the Russian military's actions near Ukrainian nuclear installations and called for the immediate withdrawal of these forces.
"[Macron] expressed his support for the proposal of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency to send a mission on site as soon as possible, and the two presidents discussed the terms of such a mission," according to the readout.
The two leaders also discussed the export of Ukrainian agricultural products through a U.N.-brokered sea corridor.
— Amanda Macias
A roundup of the Ukrainian agricultural exports on their way to global ports
The 21 vessels that have left Ukrainian ports are taking hundreds of thousands of metric tons of corn, wheat and other agricultural products around the world, according to the organization overseeing their export.
The Joint Coordination Center, a humanitarian initiative of Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said the breakdown of exports includes the following:
- 451,481 metric tons of corn
- 50,300 metric tons of sunflower meal
- 41,622 metric tons of wheat
- 11,000 metric tons of soybeans
- 6,000 metric tons of sunflower oil
- 2,914 metric tons of sunflower seed
The group also said that the preliminary destinations for Ukrainian food exports are Turkey, Iran, South Korea, China, Ireland, Italy, Djibouti and Romania.
— Amanda Macias