Situation on day 62 of war in Ukraine[/caption]
Meanwhile, in Germany, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin convened a meeting of officials from about 40 countries at the American air base at Ramstein.
There, he urged delegates to leave "with a common and transparent understanding of Ukraine's near-term security requirements because we're going to keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet them".
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US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin[/caption]
Over in Chernobyl, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says it was possible an accident could have occurred when Russian troops seized control of the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster during the early stages of the war in Ukraine.
Speaking at the plant on Tuesday, Rafael Mariano Grossi said as Russia troops took over in February on their way to the capital Kyiv, there became a "nuclear safety situation which was not normal, and could have developed into an accident".
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A dosimetrist measures the level of radiation around trenches dug by the Russian military near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power[/caption]
The site is now back in Ukrainian hands but Russians continue to hold a working nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine - the Zaporizhzhia plant - where there was fighting nearby in early March which damaged the plant's training facility.
Focus on Donbas
After unexpectedly fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces thwarted Russia's attempt to take its capital, Moscow's focus is now the capture of the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking industrial region in eastern Ukraine.
In response, Ukraine's pleas for heavy weaponry has intensified, and Germany announced it would be sending tanks - better suited for the Donbas, than around the capital Kyiv where much of the earlier fighting took place.
In key developments:
- US State Department diplomats have begun returning to Lviv in Western Ukraine
- Russia will stop gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday, it has been announced
- Russia's President Vladimir Putin tells UN Secretary-General António Guterres, he still hopes to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Ukraine
- UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson dampened down claims Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons
- Russia's defence ministry has claimed Ukraine has lost control of the entire Kherson region
