The Zaporizhzhia power plant is out of power and running on generators according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Saturday.

The Russian-occupied facility has been without power for more than a week.

It needs power to keep its nuclear reactors cool and has access to only 10 days worth of fuel on site.

“The availability of diesel fuel is of paramount importance whenever a nuclear power plant loses off-site power,” said agency director general Rafael Grossi.

“The current situation once again shows why reliable external power and secure supply routes are indispensable for nuclear safety and security.”

At least 38 people have been killed following a Russian strike on an ammunitions depot near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called it the deadliest attack this year. At least 20 others are injured and four people remain missing.

Moscow has declared it is launching massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities in response to attacks on Russian civilian and energy infrastructure.

The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that preparations for the attacks had begun.

It added that forces had continued overnight to carry ‌out ​coordinated ‌strikes ⁠against Ukraine’s ⁠defence industry facilities.

Ukraine wants to bring forward part of a European Union loan earmarked for next year to help cover a $27 billion budget deficit this year, defence minister Yevhenii Khmara said.

Speaking to ‌reporters, he added ‌that Kyiv’s war ‌plan must be clear to ⁠Ukraine’s partners as well as across the military chain of command.

Khmara also said Ukraine has tested four potential interceptors to shoot down the jet-powered drones Russia is increasingly firing at Ukraine.

Ukraine is striking deeper into the heart of Russia than ever before with swarms of drones that have led Russians into a panic. Experts say that Kyiv’s resourcefulness is a result of studying Moscow, Maira Butt reports:

In 2023, a year into Russia’s unprecedented invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv was producing around 800,000 drones a year. By 2024, that number had more than doubled to two million.

“There are no critical consequences from such attacks, there have not been and cannot be,” he told a conference of business and economy leaders, trying to downplay their scale.

However, he added: “But they certainly cause us harm, that is obvious, and we understand, see and know this.”

Russia has launched nearly 2,000 strike drones, more than 1,600 aerial bombs, and 31 missiles in Ukraine this week, its president said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said strikes were “virtually constant”in Nikopol, Kramatorsk, Kherson, and communities in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Donetsk, and Sumy regions.

“We are seeking just responses to every Russian strike and crime. They will certainly come,” he said.

Earlier this week, a C17 Globemaster descended into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. Although it was hopping in from Riga, Latvia, the plane had originated at Andrews Air Force Base, close to Washington DC. On board was John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA. After being whisked into the Russian capital in a motorcade, a few hours later, Ratcliffe was up in the air again and on his way home.

Who Ratcliffe met was not clear. The visit had not been announced in advance in the US, while Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov claimed to have no knowledge or information about the arrival of a US Air Force plane.

Not surprisingly, there has been much speculation as to why the most senior figure in US intelligence had gone to Moscow in person. After all, if Ratcliffe had an important message to share or communicate, there were other, easier and safer ways to do so than spending hours in a plane travelling to Russia.

Some speculated that Ratcliffe’s mission involved Iran, perhaps a request for Moscow’s help in focusing Tehran’s mind about a workable settlement that might lead to the full re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz, or perhaps a warning that Putin’s government should be careful in its dealings with a country that is the focus not only of US military but economic pressure: ties between Russia and Iran have been strong for years, with the latter a source of prodigious numbers of Shahed drones that have been used in the war against Ukraine.