Russia-Ukraine War Live Updates: Russia launched 36 rockets in a 'massive attack,' says President Zelenskyy

Weapons shortages across Europe could force hard choices for Ukraine’s allies as they balance their support for Ukraine against the risk that Russia could target them next. It can be difficult for some European countries to rapidly resupply because they no longer have a strong defense sector to quickly build replacements.

Pro-Russian authorities in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, which Moscow claims to have annexed, on Saturday urged residents of the region's eponymous main city to leave "immediately" in the face of Kyiv's advancing counter-offensive."Due to the tense situation on the front, the increased danger of mass shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the left bank of the Dnieper river," the region's pro-Russian authorities said on social media.

Two civilians were killed following strikes on Russia's southern Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Saturday."There are two dead among civilians," Gladkov said on social media following shelling on "civilian infrastructure" in the town of Shebekino, where nearly 15,000 people were left without electricity.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Russia using nuclear weapons would be seen as an "act of hostility against humanity" Saturday, describing President Vladimir Putin's sabre rattling as "deeply disturbing"."Russia's act of threatening the use of nuclear weapons is a serious threat to the peace and security of the international community and absolutely unacceptable," said Kishida, who leads the only country to have ever been hit with a nuclear bomb.

The United States and key Western allies accused Russia on Friday of using Iranian drones to attack civilians and power plants in Ukraine in violation of a 2015 UN Security Council resolution and international humanitarian law.Russia countered by accusing Ukraine of attacking infrastructure and civilians for eight years in the eastern separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed earlier this year.The US, France, Germany and Britain supported Ukraine's call for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to send a team to investigate the origin of the drones.Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the drones are Russian and warned that an investigation would violate the U.N. Charter and seriously affect relations between Russia and the United Nations.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has warned that Russia was preparing a “false flag” operation to blow up a large hydroelectric dam in the south of the country, potentially flooding 80 towns, villages and cities, including the strategically important city of Kherson.He said the plot to attack the dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in Nova Kakhovka was aimed at framing Ukraine for the devastating humanitarian and ecological disaster that would ensue. He called for the creation of an international observation mission at the plant, saying it was imperative to prevent a catastrophe.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin held a phone conversation over international security, the situation in Ukraine in particular, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a brief statement.