Ukraine

KYIV, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Ukraine made its boldest claim yet of success on the battlefield in its week-old counter-offensive against Russian forces in the south, while European markets went into free-fall on Monday after Russia kept its main gas pipeline to Germany shut.

Following days of silence about their new offensive, Ukrainian officials posted an image online of three soldiers raising a flag over a town in Kherson province, a southern region occupied by Russia since the war's early days.

KYIV, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told Europeans to expect a difficult winter as the Russian assault on his country leads to cuts in oil and gas exports by Moscow, as the continent's leaders worked on Sunday to ease the impact of high energy prices.

Zelenskiy spoke on Saturday night after Moscow shut down a main pipeline that supplies Russian gas to the continent.

"Russia is preparing a decisive energy blow on all Europeans for this winter," he said in his daily video address.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling hit the southern Ukraine port city of Mykolaiv during the night, damaging a medical treatment facility, the city’s mayor said Sunday.

Mykolaiv and its surrounding region have been hit daily for weeks in the conflict. On Saturday, a child was killed and five people were injured in rocket attacks in the region, governor Vitaliy Kim said. Mykolaiv city mayor Oleksandr Senkevych did not specify whether there were any injuries in the overnight attack, which he said also damaged some residences.

ENERGODAR, September 3. /TASS/: An assault force aboard over 15 speed boats is moving towards the city of Energodar from the Kiev-controlled territory, a Zaporozhye region official told TASS on Saturday.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Saturday that the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine was disconnected to its last external power line but was still able to run electricity through a reserve line amid sustained shelling in the area.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The heavy rubber gas masks placed atop small wooden desks are nothing strange to these children as they file past the bomb shelter’s heavy iron door to attend classes in weapons theory.

Nearby, children giggle, trying to keep up with their English teacher as she sings and gestures “Head and shoulders, knees and toes. Knees and toes!” each repetition getting a little faster.

Unique in Ukraine, the children at Volodymyr the Great school Number 23 on the outskirts of Kyiv are training to become military cadets, starting at the age of 7.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Heavy fighting continued Friday near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in a Russian-controlled area of eastern Ukraine, a day after experts from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency voiced concerns about structural damage to the sprawling Zaporizhzhia site.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — A U.N. inspection team arrived at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Thursday on a mission to safeguard it against catastrophe, reaching the site amid fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces that prompted the shutdown of one reactor and underscored the urgency of the task.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A team of U.N. inspectors made its way toward Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Wednesday on a perilous, long-sought mission to safeguard the site and prevent a catastrophe from the fighting raging around it.

Underscoring the danger, Kyiv and Moscow again accused each other of shelling the area around the complex overnight. Zaporizhzhia is the biggest nuclear plant in Europe.

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine/KYIV, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged Russian soldiers to flee for their lives after his forces launched an offensive to retake southern Ukraine, but Moscow said it had repulsed the attack and inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv's troops.

Ukraine said on Monday its ground forces had gone on the offensive in the south for the first time after a long period of striking Russian supply lines, in particular bridges across the strategically important Dnipro River, and ammunition dumps.