Ukraine Update….165 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine

• Brittney Griner’s defense team appealed the verdict of a Russian court that sentenced the American basketball player to 9½ years in prison for bringing cannabis oil into the country in February.
• Forty-two countries are calling on Russia to withdraw troops from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, according to a statement by the European Uniondated Friday and posted Sunday. The statement says Russia’s military aggression at and near the plant poses a threat to nuclear safety.
• The latest round of shelling near the plant killed one employee and injured two others, Ukraine’s nuclear power regulator said on Telegram. The city of Enerhodar was hit at least six times, the regulator said, further shaking the enclave where many nuclear power plant employees live.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that the two countries will expand their bilateral relations,North Korean state media reported Monday. The leaders exchanged congratulatory letters to mark Korea’s Liberation Day.

• Ukrainian troops struck a Wagner Group base in Popasna on Sunday, the regional governor said early Monday. Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said in a Telegram post that members of the mercenary group died in the attack but that the death count was still being clarified.
• Ukrainian forces again struck a bridge near Kherson over the weekend, probably rendering all three bridges into the Kherson region “unusable,” the Institute for the Study of War, a D.C.-based think tank, said Sunday evening.
• Moscow is probably in the “advanced planning stages to hold a referendum” for the eastern Donetsk region to join Russia, even though it has not been completely captured, Britain’s Defense Ministry saidMonday.
• Russian offensives near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region were unsuccessful, the Ukrainian military said in an operational update early Monday, after it had said that Moscow made unspecified gains Sunday. Russian proxy troops are operating in the area, according to the ISW…..

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Here’s what you need to know:

• Ukraine makes gains in Kherson, but Russia’s advantage holds.

• Brittney Griner appeals her conviction on drug charges in Russia, her defense team says.

• Shelling near a Ukrainian nuclear plant has hit the fire station it uses for emergencies, officials say.

• Ukraine claims it hit a Russian mercenaries’ base in the east.

• Putin offers arms to Russia’s ‘many allies’ at a defense industry trade show.

• Moscow Exchange opens bond trading to foreigners from ‘not hostile’ countries.

• ‘They are shooting day and night’: Civilians flee the contested region around a nuclear power comple…

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