Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 262 of the invasion | World news

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Ukrainians in Kherson city are celebrating after the arrival of Ukrainian soldiers to recapture the city. In extraordinary scenes, jubilant crowds have been seen welcoming soldiers in the southern Ukrainian city, after progress made by the armed forces in recent days continued. Ukrainian forces have liberated 41 settlements as they advanced through the south, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

A Ukrainian flag has been raised in Svobody Square, near the headquarters for the regional administration for the first time since the city fell to Russia on 2 March. Another is being flown outside the city’s national police headquarters.

Zelenskiy declared the city to be “ours” and that it was a “historic” day for the country, after Russia announced the completion of its withdrawal from the regional capital. In a statement on his Telegram page, he said that people in Kherson never gave up hope on Ukraine, adding: “Hope for Ukraine is always justified – and Ukraine always returns its own.”

A Ukrainian defense ministry has told the BBC that Ukraine’s forces are almost in full control of Kherson.

Russia said more than 30,000 service personnel have been withdrawn to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River. The defense ministry said that its evacuation had been completed by 5am Moscow time on Friday. The ministry said there was no military hardware or soldiers left on the western side of the river.

However, reports have emerged of some Russian troops being left behind in Ukraine and changing into civilian clothes, or drowning trying to escape. The ministry of defense’s intelligence unit has urged Russian soldiers to surrender.

The Antonivskiy Bridge, the only nearby road crossing from the southern Ukrainian city of eastern Kherson to the Russian-controlled bank of the Dnieper River, has been blown up. There was significant new damage to the nearby major Nova Kakhovka dam after the withdrawal, US satellite imagery company Maxar said.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general is investigating three bodies that were found in Kherson region, who were suspected of were victims of war crimes.

Russian attacks on electricity facilities are having a disproportionate effect on civilians in Ukraine, having an indiscriminate impact on critical functions such as healthcare and heating, according to the latest evaluation by the UK’s Ministry of Defense.

Ukraine is building a wall at its northern border with neighbor Belarus, a key ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin. The concrete wall is already 3km long.

Forty-five Ukrainian soldiers have been freed in a prisoner exchange with Russia and the bodies of two killed Ukrainian soldiers have also been repatriated, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office has said.

The United Nations has been holding talks with Russian officials in Geneva about the agreement to export grain from Ukraine through the Black Sea.

The UN nuclear watchdog says an investigation of a research plant in the city of Kharkiv found it was badly damaged, but there were no signs of a radiological release or diversion of nuclear material.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany’s priority in its aid to Ukraine should be to help it defend itself from Russian air raids on its cities and to help it rebuild its infrastructure.

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