Ukraine Update….175 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine….The Long War?

• The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been reconnected to the national electricity grid, Ukraine’s energy agency, Energoatom, said. It is also now producing power for the country as well as receiving it. The agency hailed the Ukrainian workers there for tireless efforts to protect the “nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine and the whole of Europe.” Russian forces have controlled the facility and nearby areas since March.
• Fears remain about a possible radiation leak at the site. In the nearby city of Zaporizhzhia, held by Ukraine, authorities have begun distributing iodine tablets to residents, the Associated Press reports. The pills help block some of the harmful effects of leaks by blocking radioactive iodine, though other factors from a leak could still pose a threat to health.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency chief says his team of experts will visit the site in the coming days. Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement: “Almost every day there is a new incident at or near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. We can’t afford to lose any more time.”
• Russia is using 21 sites in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, to detain, interrogate and process prisoners of war and civilians in so-called “filtration camps,” a report by Yale University and the State Department found. It said its findings are based on data and commercial satellite imagery identifying with “high confidence” the separate locations, one of which contains “potential graves.”

• Russian claims of a military slowdown are “almost certainly deliberate misinformation,”Britain’s Defense Ministry said Friday in a daily briefing. Earlier this week, Russian Defense Minster Sergei Shoigu said an intentional slowdown in attacks was underway to avoid civilian casualties. But Moscow’s offensive has stalled because of “poor” military performance, Britain claims.
• “Extensive use” of cluster munitions by Russia has killed at least 689 people in Ukraine since the war began, the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international disarmament group, said in its annual report. It said use of the internationally banned munitions was having an “enormous impact on civilians” and “demonstrates a blatant disregard for human life, humanitarian principles, and legal norms.” Ukrainian forces have also used the weapons “several times” in the conflict, it added.
• Kyiv has renamed 95 streets in a “de-Russification” effort. The capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, announced the new street names, which were supported by a public vote, to “perpetuate the memory” of significant Ukrainian historical events and heroes. Soviet-era names will be replaced with those honoring Ukraine’s Azov Regiment and marines and cities such as London, he said.
• Ukraine’s southern command said in a statement that it had taken out a bridge, with rockets, in the southern Kherson region, in an area occupied by Russian forces, Reuters reports…..

More….

Here’s what we know:

There has been little movement on the front line in recent weeks, even as Zelensky and Putin face pressure to show battlefield results.

• Russia and Ukraine brace for a war of attrition.

• Zelensky is under pressure over when and how to launch a long-anticipated counteroffensive.

• The Zaporizhzhia plant is back online while talks on access for U.N. inspectors gain momentum.

• Latvia tears down a controversial Soviet-era monument in its capital.

• Britain braces for a surge in energy prices as the war in Ukraine further stretches markets.

• Russian news media covers the war with ‘blatant lies and demagogy.’