Ukraine updates: Kyiv says Russian spy ring uncovered

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is preparing to visit Washington on Thursday, with support for Ukraine expected to be high on the agenda in light of Congressional deadlock holding up billions in US military aid.

Germany has been one of Ukraine's main European military backers, after facing initial criticism for dragging its feet at the beginning of Russia's invasion in February 2022.  

According to German government circles, Scholz will seek to make clear that supporting Ukraine is an important transatlantic task during talks with US lawmakers.

A government representative in Berlin on Tuesday said Germany has poured in over €28 billion worth of support since the war began. Last week, the European Union pledged €50 billion in predominantly non-military support for Ukraine.

In terms of military donations, which are a national matter for individual EU member states for the most part, Germany is Ukraine's second-biggest donor worldwide. However, it is also a distant second to the US having sent material worth just over one-third of the value of US deliveries. 

The chancellor is expected to meet with members of Congress on Thursday evening.

Among those invited are the leaders of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. A meeting with US President Joe Biden is planned for Friday.

A Russian missile attack hit a three-storey hotel in Ukraine's Kharkiv region overnight, killing a two-month-old baby and injuring his mother, the Ukrainian regional governor said on Tuesday.

Two other women were injured and were taken to a hospital with shrapnel wounds, Governor Oleh Synehubov said.

The attack damaged over 30 buildings, including private houses, a cafe, shops and private cars, the National Police said.

UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi said he planned to visit the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Wednesday.

Grossi would examine the operation of the plant, where six reactors are in shutdown, he told French RFI radio on Tuesday.

Grossi added that some 100 of the thousands of Ukrainian staff at the plant are refusing to sign contracts with Russia's nuclear company Rosatom. He said he would also look into the impact of this on the plant.

"This huge facility used to have around 12,000 staff. Now, this has been reduced to between 2,000 and 3,000, which is quite a steep reduction in the number of people working there," Grossi told the Associated Press news agency.

Grossi was in Kyiv on Tuesday, where he met Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko.

Russia said on Tuesday morning it had thwarted  a Ukrainian overnight drone attack on the western Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

The alleged attack involved seven aircraft-type UAVs, the Russian Defense Ministry said, describing it as a "terrorist attack."

"All Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted by air defense systems on duty over the territory of Belgorod region," the ministry added.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said no casualties were reported, but four homes were damaged.

Ukraine has intensified its drone attacks against Russian territory in recent months, mainly targeting border regions, but less frequently the capital Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Ukraine's intelligence agency told reporters it fired a senior official, after an investigative journalism outlet revealed it had been subjected to months of surveillance.

Staff at Bihus.info discovered they were the subject of surreptitious filming and eavesdropping, after a video posted on social media on January 16 showed them consuming illegal drugs at a New Year's party.

The outlet acknowledged the authenticity of the video but called the surveillance "shameful."

Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency meanwhile defended the surveillance, saying "some Bihus Info employees were clients of drug traffickers." It stressed it upheld press freedom principles as part of its mission.

A criminal investigation was launched into the use of spy technology, the SBU added.

The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had listed last month two other cases of surveillance against investigative journalists in Ukraine.

Kyiv announced on Tuesday arresting five former and current intelligence officers it accused of secretly working for Moscow.

"The security service of Ukraine neutralized a powerful agent network run by the FSB's military counterintelligence which was operating in Ukraine," Kyiv's SBU security service said in a statement on Tuesday.

The suspects were caught allegedly passing information about Ukraine's military sites, its defensive fortifications, personal data and strategic energy facilities to Russia's FSB security services.

Those arrested included former employees of Ukraine's defense intelligence and its foreign intelligence units as well as a current SBU regional agent. The general prosecutor said they were all arrested on suspicion of treason.

The group is also accused of passing information about defensive barriers near the Black Sea port city of Odesa, the location of rocket launchers in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and information on Ukrainian troop movements and vehicles.