A suspected lone Russian diplomat is apparently squatting on the site of Moscow‘s proposed embassy after the Australian government vetoed the plan on security grounds. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed the Russian act of defiance, saying a “bloke standing in the cold on a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security.”

Parliament passed emergency legislation last week blocking on security grounds Russia’s lease on the largely empty block because the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House.

The collapse of the Kakhovka dam has already caused more than $1.5bn worth of damage to Ukraine, authorities said.

Minister of environmental protection and natural resources Ruslan Strilets said that this number will continue to grow.

“According to preliminary forecasts, the losses could reach hundreds of billions of [Ukrainian] hryvnias.”

“Some ecosystems have been lost forever. They will never recover. We have lost endemic species of animals. These are species that existed only in one place on earth — in the south of Ukraine. We have lost half of the forest in this area,” Mr Strilets said.

Officials said explosions were heard in the Russian city of Kursk late yesterday.

The Ukrainska Pravda news outlet reported citing Russian Telegram channels that the governor of Kursk Oblast, Roman Starovoyt, claimed air defence shot down a drone.

He, however, did not provide further information.

Russian authorities have consistently blamed Ukraine for the attacks on its border regions.

Russian forces shelled nine communities in Sumy Oblast yesterday and over 147 explosions were reported, the local authorities said on Facebook.

Authorities said that the Russian forces carried out 21 shellings, injuring one person and damaging a water tower, residential buildings, and private homes.

The communities of Krasnopillia, Khotin, Yunakivka, Vorozhba, Shalyhyne, Bilopillia, Myropillia, Nova Sloboda, and Esman were targeted by mortars, artillery, mines, and even airstrikes, the administration said.

Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese said today that the contested site of a proposed Russian embassy was secure, after it emerged that a Russian diplomat was squatting on the land following the government’s decision to cancel the lease.

Earlier this month, Australia passed a law to prevent Russia from moving its embassy from a Canberra suburb to a prime site close to parliament and the Chinese embassy, citing national security concerns, Reuters reported.

Earlier it was reported that a Russian diplomat was squatting on the land under the watch of a police force unable to arrest him as he has diplomatic immunity.

“Australia will stand up for our values and we will stand up for our national security, and a bloke standing in the cold on a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security,” Mr Albanese told a news conference today.

“The site is secure and we are comfortable with our position.”

Reuters said Moscow on Wednesday barred 48 Australians from entering Russia, in what it said was retaliation for Australia’s own long-running sanctions regime against the country.

The European Union said yesterday that Ukraine, even amid war and relentless attacks from Russia, was staying the course towards opening membership talks with the bloc and lauded it for reforms in several sectors.

Ukraine sees EU membership as an essential part of its Western-oriented future. For over a year it has worked on paving the way to opening talks and the 27-nation bloc issued some badly needed words of encouragement, although it said work remains to be done.

In an interim report addressing only part of the changes the nation needs to make to start talks, EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said Kyiv had “completed” two of seven steps, on judicial governance and media freedom and that “good progress had been made on constitutional court reform.

The United Nations has added Russia to a global list of offenders for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022, it was reported.

According to a report to the UN Security Council, Russian forces and affiliated groups “maimed 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on Ukrainian schools and hospitals”.

The report seen by Reuters said that Russia’s military used 91 children as human shields as well.

The UN also accused the Ukrainian military of killing 80 children, injuring 175, and carrying out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals. Ukraine wasn’t added to the global list of offenders, it was reported.

Presidential primary candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr said that he believes Russia acted in “good faith” when it invaded Ukraine, and claimed the US was largely responsible for the war.

Mr Kennedy is running as a Democrat in the 2024 presidential primaries.

Scully asked Mr Kennedy about Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s invasion, which prompted Mr Kennedy to say that “baby steps” towards negotiations were the appropriate path forward.

The interviewer then pointed out that Mr Putin has largely dismissed calls for negotiations unless they allow Russia to keep the land it has already occupied in Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia is considering a terrorist attack at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

“Our intelligence obtained information that Russia is considering a scenario of a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. A terrorist attack with radiation leakage. They have prepared everything for this,” Mr Zelensky said, according to Kyiv Independent.

Earlier, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov claimed that Russian forces have planted additional mines in and around Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, including the cooling pond.

“The worst thing is that Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was additionally mined during this time. The cooler (pond) was mined. If they disable it by blowing it up, there is a high probability that there will be significant problems,” he said.

Ukraine has warned people that Russian missile and drone attacks might take place as air raid alerts were in effect throughout the country early this morning.

Telegram channels reported explosions in several regions, from Lviv in the west, far from the front lines, to Kherson in the south.

However, there were no reports of strikes or casualties so far.