Ukraine Update…231 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine….Eight Months…

Monday also marks eight months since Russia invaded Ukraine …. the war grinds on.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe….

• Ukraine’s foreign minister invited the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, “to urgently send experts to peaceful facilities in Ukraine which Russia deceitfully claims to be developing a dirty bomb.” Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter Monday that Grossi agreed. A spokesperson for the IAEA confirmed the invitation to The Washington Post but did not say whether a delegation would be visiting Ukraine. It’s the latest development in a back-and-forth between Moscow, Kyiv and Western powers over Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s unfounded claim that Ukraine is planning to use so-called dirty bombs — explosive weapons designed to widely disperse radioactive material — in the war.
• “The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation,” the U.S., British, and French foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “We further reject any pretext for escalation by Russia,” the Western diplomats added. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994 in return for a guarantee from Russia that it would not attack Ukraine.
• The Kremlin doubled down on Shoigu’s claims on Monday. During a news briefing, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the joint statement by Ukraine’s allies, “Their [Western] distrust does not mean that the threat of such a dirty bomb ceases to exist. The threat is obvious. This information was conveyed to the defense minister’s interlocutors. It’s up to them to believe it or not,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the Western joint statement during a news briefing.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of manufacturing false threats in his nightly speech. “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” Zelensky said of Shoigu’s claims.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will represent the United States this week at a Crimea Platform summit, a forum hosted by Ukraine and focused on the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. She said she and other leaders will “deliver an unmistakable statement of our solidarity with Ukraine in its fight for freedom.”

• “Ukrainian efforts to defeat” Iranian-made drones used by Russia on the battlefield “are increasingly successful,” the British Defense Ministry said, citing claims by Zelensky that Ukrainian forces are intercepting up to 85 percent of the unmanned aerial vehicles’ attempted strikes. Ukrainian and U.S. officials say Russia has procured Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones from Iran, which Tehran denies. Russia is likely having to use more of the drones “as a substitute for Russian-manufactured long-range precision weapons which are becoming increasingly scarce.”
• Ukraine still faces widespread power outages and cuts after Russian strikes pummeled the country’s energy infrastructure in recent days. Ukrenergo, the national electric transmission company, said it was forced to impose caps on electricity supply to seven regions of Ukraine, including around the capital, Kyiv, which will face some of the strictest restrictions. The company said the controlled blackouts would help its crews repair the equipment damaged by the strikes.
• Russian-installed officials in the occupied city of Kherson invited male residents to join a militia tasked with defending the city as Moscow continues to order tens of thousands of residents to immediately leave in preparation for a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Kyiv’s forces hope to retake Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city Russian forces captured after invading the country….

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Here’s what we know:

There were growing signs that Russia’s occupation government in Kherson was proceeding with plans to prepare the city for fighting ahead of a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive.

• A senior Ukrainian official said Russia’s occupation administration in Kherson was crumbling.

• Top allies warn Russia against using ‘dirty bomb’ accusations to escalate the war.

• More Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of intentionally slowing grain shipments.

• Italy’s new right-wing government seeks to reaffirm support for Ukraine.

• For Ukrainian runners, a brutal race made sense when little else did.

• In a call, U.S. and Russian officials discuss Russia’s escalating threats against Ukraine….

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