The war in Ukraine is entering a new phase as Russian troops mass in the south in preparation for a Ukrainian counter-offensive, western analysts believe.
The new front line emerging near Zaporizhzia has led to renewed concern over the safety of the city's nuclear power plant after Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling the site.
Ukraine said Russia was on the defensive in the south and had carried out air strikes as it tried to hold captured territory, some of it seized in the early weeks of the war.
An intelligence update by Britain's Defence Ministry on Saturday said convoys of Russian tanks, lorries and weapons were being repositioned to the south from the eastern Donbas region.
There were also reports of equipment being moved from Russian-occupied Mariupol and from the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014, where battalion-sized units were being readied.
The battalions massing in Crimea "will highly likely be sent into the Kherson region in the coming days," the ministry said.
"Russia's war on Ukraine is about to enter a new phase, with the heaviest fighting shifting to roughly a 350km front line stretching southwest from near Zaporizhzhia to Kherson."
Ukraine is believed to be hitting bridges, ammunition depots and rail links to weaken Russia's ability to resupply its forces.
Russia said it had shot down three ballistic missiles near Kherson, the first major city it occupied after invading Ukraine in February.
The Russian occupiers in Kherson are thought to be planning a referendum on a potential annexation by Moscow, in an echo of the 2014 poll in Crimea that western powers dismissed as a sham.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that his forces were "gradually moving forward" in Kherson and Kharkiv as they try to regain lost ground.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, said in a daily assessment that Russia's reinforcement of Kherson came "at the expense of efforts to seize Sloviansk", a city in Donetsk "which they appear to have abandoned".
Russia first sought to capture the capital Kyiv, but was repelled in the early weeks of the war. It then refocused its offensive in Luhansk and Donetsk, capturing the first and making significant headway in the second.
Mr Zelenskyy said Russia had caused an "extremely risky situation for everyone in Europe" by firing at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant twice in one day.
It is the latest nuclear scare during the 163-day conflict. Russian troops had occupied the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the fighting threatened Zaporizhzhia's power supply.
Russia-Ukraine war - in pictures
"This is the largest nuclear power plant on our continent. And any shelling of this facility is an open, brazen crime, an act of terror," Mr Zelenskyy said.
A senior adviser to Mr Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Saturday that it was a miracle that the plant did not explode. He called for the UN to hand control of the plant to a special commission.
But Russia denied blame. The Defence Ministry in Moscow said it was the Ukrainian army that had launched three artillery strikes at the plant, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Russia said it had captured 70 people suspected of helping the Ukrainian army and security services in the surrounding area.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said last week that the plant was “completely out of control” and that “every principle of nuclear safety has been violated.”
THE DETAILS
Deadpool 2
Dir: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Justin Dennison, Zazie Beetz
Four stars
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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Dhadak
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Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
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This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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The years Ramadan fell in May
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Hamilton’s 2017
Australia - 2nd; China - 1st; Bahrain - 2nd; Russia - 4th; Spain - 1st; Monaco - 7th; Canada - 1st; Azerbaijan - 5th; Austria - 4th; Britain - 1st; Hungary - 4th; Belgium - 1st; Italy - 1st; Singapore - 1st; Malaysia - 2nd; Japan - 1st; United States - 1st; Mexico - 9th
The five pillars of Islam
The specs
Engine: 2.2-litre, turbodiesel
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Power: 160hp
Torque: 385Nm
Price: Dh116,900
On sale: now
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
