Live updates | Russia-Ukraine War

    Kyiv, Oct 24 (AP) Ukraine's top diplomat is urging the U.N. nuclear watchdog to immediately send an inspection team to the country to counter Moscow's claim that Kyiv is preparing a “provocation” involving a dirty bomb.
    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday he made the request in a call with Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
    Kuleba said Grossi agreed to send a team of inspectors, adding that “unlike Russia, Ukraine has always been and remains transparent. We have nothing to hide.”
    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu alleged in phone calls with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey that Ukraine was preparing a provocation involving a dirty bomb — a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive material.
    The U.S., Britain and France said in a joint statement that they “reject Russia's transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.”
    
    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:
    — Ukraine hospital's staff fight dark memories of occupation
    — Ukrainian woman's quest to retrieve body of prisoner of war
    — Macron: Ukraine to decide time, terms of peace with Russia
    — EXPLAINER: What would retreat from Kherson mean for Russia?
    
    BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says rebuilding Ukraine will be a “task for a generation” that no country, donor or international institution can manage alone.
    Scholz spoke at a German-Ukrainian business forum on Monday, a day before he and the head of the European Union's executive Commission host a gathering of experts to help mobilise international support for Ukraine's reconstruction.
    The chancellor pointed to the EU's decision in June to make Ukraine a candidate to join the bloc. He said that “this decision also sends a signal to private investors: anyone who invests in rebuilding Ukraine today is investing in a future EU member country that will be part of our legal community and our single market.”
    Scholz said it's important not just to repair destroyed energy plants and networks, but to make them more efficient — ultimately allowing an expansion of Ukrainian electricity exports to the EU and a step-by-step transition to climate neutrality.
    He stressed the need for more transparency and “an even more determined fight against corruption” as Ukraine strives ultimately to join the EU.
    Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the forum that rebuilding will be a forward-looking process. He added that “in the process of transformation, incredible opportunities for European companies will open up — in the energy sector, in agriculture, in the military sector, in IT and all other (areas).”
    
    MOSCOW — The Kremlin is standing by its allegation that Ukraine may be preparing to detonate a so-called dirty bomb, which disperses radioactive material, though Ukraine, the United States, Britain and France have dismissed Moscow's claim.
    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the claim in phone calls with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey.
    The Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu voiced concern about “possible Ukrainian provocations involving a dirty bomb,'” a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive material.
    Such a device doesn't have the devastating effect of a nuclear explosion, but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.
    The Russian Defense Ministry and the Kremlin didn't publicly offer any specific information to back up its claim.
    But speaking during Monday's call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Shoigu's warning reflected a real threat.
    “Their distrust of the information that has been provided by the Russian side doesn't mean that the threat of using such a dirty bomb doesn't exist,” Peskov said. “Such a threat exists, and the defense minister has given the information about it to his interlocutors. It's up to them whether to trust it or not.”
    Western allies said they reject “Russia's transparently false allegations” and warned they would “see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation.”
    
    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov says that Russian forces aren't going to pull back from the key southern city of Kherson any time soon.
    He said in an interview published Monday that the Russians are beefing up their defenses in the city amid a parallel effort to evacuate officials and encourage civilians to leave.
    “In many aspects, it's an information operation and a manipulation,” Budanov said, adding that the evacuation effort has “created an illusion that the game is lost.”
    “At the same time, they are bringing in new military units and preparing the streets of the city for defense,” he added.
    _
    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine's presidential office said Monday that at least six civilians were killed and another five were wounded by Russian shelling of several Ukrainian regions over the previous 24 hours.
    The city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region has come under the most intense attacks.
    “The Russians have been shelling power plants, schools and hospitals, subjecting the elderly and the disabled to suffering and death in the cold and darkness,” Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in televised remarks.
    The southern Mykolaiv region also came under Russian shelling that targeted energy facilities.
    Kyiv and seven other regions planned rolling blackouts Monday as authorities worked to fix the damage to energy facilities inflicted by the Russian bombardment.
    Ukrainians were again asked to avoid using energy-hungry home appliances in an effort to lower the load on electricity networks. (AP)
    
MRJ

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)