Russia-Ukraine war live: Three killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, has condemned a drone strike on one of six nuclear reactors at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.

“This cannot happen,” Grossi wrote on a social media post. Adding, “No one can conceivably benefit or get any military or political advantage from attacks against nuclear facilities. This is a no go.”

Russia has blamed Ukriane for the strike, but Ukrainian intelligence sources have denied any involvement. The Guardian is unable to independently verify either account.

IAEA officials on site reported in a statement that “outside a laboratory, they saw blood stains next to a damaged military logistics vehicle, indicating at least one casualty.”

“This is a major escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers,” director general Grossi said. “Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must cease immediately.”

While the team so far has not observed any structural damage to systems, structures, and components important to nuclear safety or security of the plant, Grossi warned of the dangers of such strikes on Sunday, saying, “Although the damage at unit 6 has not compromised nuclear safety, this was a serious incident that had the potential to undermine the integrity of the reactor’s containment system.”

More than 10,400 homes across Russia have been flooded, triggering record water levels in the Ural mountains, Russia’s emergency ministry said on Monday.

“An increase in air temperatures, active snow melt and river openings are predicted,” Russia’s emergency ministry said. “More than 10,400 residential buildings remain flooded in 39 regions.”

The Ural River several metres in just hours on Friday due to melting water, bursting through a dam embankment in the city of Orsk, 1,800 km (1,100 miles) east of Moscow.

Russia’s government declared a federal emergency on Sunday over flood-hit areas, state media reported.

Here are the latest photos coming through the wires:

Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region has killed three people on Monday, in a second day of deadly attacks on the area, its governor said.

“Three people were killed and three people were wounded in the Pologivskyi district” of Zaporizhzhia, Governor Ivan Federov said on social media.

In other key developments over the weekend:

• Russia claimed on Sunday that Kyiv had attacked the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with a drone, but Ukraine has denied being behind the attack. An intelligence official said Kyiv had nothing to do with any strikes on the station and suggested they were the work of Russians themselves. The Guardian has been unable to independently verify either account.

• UN Nuclear watchdog urges restraint after Ukraine attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Sunday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed on Sunday by authorities at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that a drone detonated on site today. “Such detonation is consistent with IAEA observations,” the nuclear watchdog said in a post on a social media. IAEA director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, also said of the attack, “I urge to refrain from actions that … jeopardise nuclear safety.”

  Earlier, the administration reported an Ukrainian strike on the dome of the plant’s sixth power unit that caused no damage, and an attack that damaged a truck parked near the station’s canteen, according to Russian state news agency TASS reports.

• Russia has been accused of systematically using illegal chemical gas attacks against Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian troops claimed that they have been subjected to “almost daily” attacks from small drones dropping teargas and other chemicals. The use of such substances, which is known as CS, is banned during wartime under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

• Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will make an official visit to China to discuss war in Ukraine. Talks scheduled on Monday and Tuesday between Russia and China will consist of bilateral cooperation as well as “hot topics”, such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific, the Russian foreign ministry has said. On Saturday, the US warned allies that China has provided geospatial intelligence to Moscow in its war against Ukraine. According to reports, China has provided Russia with satellite imagery for military purposes, as well as microelectronics and machine tools for tanks.

• Three civilians were killed in a Russian attack on the frontline village of Guliaipole, in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, according to reports from the regional government. The Guardian could not independently verify these claims.

• One civilian was killed and four others were injured after Ukrainian drones were intercepted in Belgorod. A woman was killed and four more people were wounded after air defences downed Ukrainian drones on the approach to Russia’s Belgorod city, according to a statement from the local governor posted on Telegram.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Kyiv will lose the war against Russia if the US congress does not approve military aid to battle Moscow’s invasion. Republicans in Congress have been blocking tens of billions of dollars in military assistance for Kyiv for months.

• The Russian government has declared a federal emergency over record floods in the Orenburg region. The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, forced over 4,000 people to evacuate, and has flooded more than 10,400, according to state media. Flooding in two more nearby regions has been deemed “inevitable” by the Kremlin. Russian authorities have opened a criminal case for “negligence and violation of construction safety rules” over the burst dam. The Orenburg regional governor said specialists assessed that the dam was built “for a different weight” and that the level of rainfall was “exceptional”.