Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russia denies attacking major nuclear plant following overnight fire

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations on Friday defended his country’s attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power plant, denying reports that the Russian military shelled it.

At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York, diplomats from around the world urged Russia and Ukraine to continue negotiations and stop the fighting that has raged in Ukraine since the invasion began more than a week ago. Much of their attention was on the aftermath of Russia seizing the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, in southeastern Ukraine. A Russian projectile hit the plant overnight, igniting a fire that caused widespread alarm but triggered no release of radioactive material.

After delegates from countries such as the United States, Britain and France condemned the attack, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the discussion of the nuclear plant attack at the meeting was “another attempt from Kyiv authorities to create artificial hysteria related to the situation in Ukraine.”

“All of this is a false information attack, as if Russia had fired against the power plant,” Nebenzya said.

Nebenzya followed up by saying the Russian military was actually protecting the plant and the surrounding area.

“The Zaporizhzhia power plant and the surrounding areas has been placed under the protection of the Russian military, and that is the case at this point,” he said.

The ambassador echoed talking points of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who earlier in the day called for the “normalization” of relations with other states following wide-ranging, extensive sanctions on Russia from the international community. Meanwhile, critics such as Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, labeled Russia’s actions on the nuclear plant “incredibly reckless and dangerous.”

“It threatened the safety of civilians across Russia, Ukraine and Europe,” she said.

Russia’s Internet censor on Friday announced that it would block access to Facebook, following days of escalating pressure on the social network.

The Roskomnadzor, the country’s Internet censorship agency, announced the decision in a Telegram post, where it accused Facebook of violating laws by blocking the free flow of information to Russia and Russian media on its platform.

The move is an escalation from last week, when the agency said it would slow traffic to the platforms, which are owned by California-based Meta.

Meta president for global affairs Nick Clegg confirmed last week that the company’s service had been slowed in response to the company’s fact-checking of Russian state media.

The company did not immediately respond to the Friday announcement.

Russian and Belarusian gymnasts are banned indefinitely from competing in competitions because of the invasion of Ukraine, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) announced Friday.

All “Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials, including judges” will not be allowed to participate in competitions starting Monday, according to the FIG. The gymnastics body had previously announced emergency measures against gymnasts from Russia and Belarus shortly after the invasion began. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, is where Russian troops were deployed ahead of the invasion.

“The FIG would like to stress that these exceptional and emergency measures are decided and issued in view of the … extraordinary circumstances,” the FIG wrote in a news release. “They constitute preventive measures aiming at preserving the integrity of Gymnastics, the safety and integrity of members and all athletes and participants, and at fighting against all forms of violence and of sports injustice.”

The announcement means Russia and Belarus will be unable to compete at the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, later this month.

FIG recently canceled all World Cup and World Challenge Cup events scheduled for either Russia or Belarus. The World Curling Federation on Friday also announced that Russia has been banned from competing for the rest of the season.

FIG clarified that the measure does not affect Russian and Belarusian nationals who are members of the FIG Executive Committee or of FIG technical committees. The gymnastics body said it “may further adapt these exceptional measures according to future developments.”

Five days after Kyiv had fallen to the enemy, residents of the Ukrainian city were ordered to report to a depot on Prorizna Street near the main post office to register and turn in hunting rifles and radios.

As they gathered at the building, two massive explosions rocked the first and third floors.

Fifteen minutes later, the Grand Hotel, where top enemy officers were quartered, blew up. Blasts also hit the Arcade and the Hotel Continental.

It was September 1941. Adolf Hitler had launched the World War II invasion of Russia in June, and the Germans surrounded Kyiv on Sept. 16. Three days later the city fell.

The blasts in the city were caused by bombs planted by Russian secret police before the Germans arrived.

Now, Kyiv faces another invader — this time the Russians, whose rockets are slamming the city as Nazi dive bombers did in 1941.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has backed TikTok into a corner, split between its position as a global social media platform and its Chinese ownership.

TikTok’s executives spent the early days of the invasion noticeably quiet, omitting the words Ukraine and Russia in public statements and referring to the invasion as a “situation.” As other companies, such as Facebook and Google, highlighted efforts to help Ukrainians shield their accounts from Russian surveillance and cyberattacks, TikTok has publicized no such program.

On Thursday, TikTok started to catch up to its American social media rivals. It told The Washington Post exclusively that it was developing a policy on how it deals with state-controlled media on its platform and, following questions about its choice of words during the conflict, sent a statement including the words “war in Ukraine.”

The changes came after Ukrainian officials pressed the company to take a heavier hand in policing Russian propaganda on its platform. In a tense email exchange earlier this week, Ukrainian officials, including Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, compared Russian state media efforts to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, according to a person familiar with the exchange.

American companies have largely scrambled to align with Ukraine’s war effort, withdrawing their products from Russia, curtailing the country’s state-run media and ending investments in Russian businesses. But with its parent company, ByteDance, based in China, a country that eschews free speech and has a long-standing friendship with Russia, TikTok is navigating competing demands for its allegiance.

The video-sharing app has long portrayed itself as an apolitical entity to its users, a place for entertainment, not politics. Now, the Russian war is testing TikTok and forcing it out of its politically neutral stance.

LONDON — The BBC announced Friday that it was suspending coverage from Russia after Russia’s communications watchdog said it had blocked access to the network and several foreign news organizations’ websites for spreading what it called “false information” about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Access has been restricted to a host of information resources owned by foreigners,” the watchdog, known as Roskomnadzor, said in a statement, according to Reuters. “The grounds for restricting access to these information resources on the territory of the Russian Federation was their deliberate and systematic circulation of materials containing false information.”

Some of the other outlets that have been blocked in Russia include Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Deutsche Welle. The move by Russia’s communications watchdog seems to be targeting state-sponsored news outlets in retaliation for actions taken against RT in recent days.

Russia’s Internet censor also on Friday announced that it would block access to Facebook, the social network owned by U.S.-based Meta.

In a statement Friday posted to Twitter, BBC Director General Tim Davie said that the new legislation passed by Russian authorities “appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism.”

“It leaves us no other option than to temporarily suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their support staff in the Russian Federation while we assess the full implications of this unwelcome development,” Davie said.

He added, “We remain committed to making accurate, independent information available to audiences around the world, including the millions of Russians who use our news services.”

Earlier this week, the BBC said that the audience for its Russian language news website more than tripled its year-to-date weekly average and that its live page in Russian covering the invasion was the most visited site across the whole of the BBC World Service’s non-English-language services, with 5.3 million views.

Peter Limbourg, the director general of Germany’s Deutsche Welle, issued a public letter Friday to Russian audiences.

“The situation for free journalism in your country has grown more difficult by the day,” he said. “DW’s Russian programming has a long tradition. We have always sought to portray a complete picture of Russia.” Limbourg urged people in Russia instead to “use Internet block bypass tools to access our channels.”

The European Union this week banned the Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik. YouTube, TikTok and Facebook parent company Meta also have blocked access to RT content on their platforms in Europe.

Davie said Friday that the safety of the BBC staff remains “paramount,” and he commended the journalists for “their bravery, determination and professionalism.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling on him to “immediately cease all hostilities” and allow access for humanitarian aid to Ukraine, according to a readout of the conversation from Berlin.

In the hour-long discussion, Putin said that a third round of talks with Ukraine is scheduled for this weekend, the statement released by Germany noted. The two leaders also agreed to speak in the near future.

Putin reiterated demands that Ukraine recognize the sovereignty of areas controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and acknowledge that Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014, is Russian territory, the Interfax news agency said. The Kremlin continued to call for the “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine as requirements for Russia to cease its attacks.