Russia-Ukraine updates: US sanctions Russian military shipbuilder, diamond miner

Ukraine Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko confirmed Sunday that power lines have been repaired to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine, which was seized by Russian forces during a fierce battle last week.

"Our Ukrainian energy companies, risking their own health and lives, were able to avert the risk of a possible nuclear catastrophe that threatened the whole of Europe," Galushchenko said in a statement.

He said the restoration of electricity to the plant will enable its cooling systems of nuclear waste assemblies to work normally again, not from backup power.

In 1986, reactor No. 4 at the power plant, about 65 miles north of the capital Kyiv, exploded, spewing enormous amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere and causing more than 100,000 people in a 1,000-square-mile radius to evacuate.

Nuclear experts and Ukrainian government officials had expressed concern about potential health hazards from radioactive material spreading from the defunct plant amid the fighting.

British officials are exploring whether they can use the homes of sanctioned Russian oligarchs to house refugees from the war in Ukraine, a top United Kingdom minister told the BBC.

Michael Gove, the British secretary of state for housing, said he wants to explore options for using oligarchs' homes in Great Britain to shelter the millions of refugees fleeing Ukraine "for as long as they are sanctioned."

“There’s quite a high legal bar to cross and we’re not talking about permanent confiscation. But we are saying, ‘You’re sanctioned, you’re supporting Putin, this home is here, you have no right to use or profit from it," Grove said. "If we can use it in order to help others, let’s do that."

At least 31 Russian attacks have been against Ukraine health care facilities, medical staff and ambulances, according to a joint statement Sunday from the World Health Organization, the United Nations and UNICEF.

“Today, we call for an immediate cessation of all attacks on health care in Ukraine. These horrific attacks are killing and causing serious injuries to patients and health workers, destroying vital health infrastructure and forcing thousands to forgo accessing health services despite catastrophic needs," the statement reads.

WHO's surveillance system for the attacks verified that at least 24 health care facilities have been damaged or destroyed. WHO said it has also verified that five ambulances have been destroyed in attacks.

The attacks on health care targets have caused at least 12 deaths and 34 injuries since the Russian invasion began, according to the statement.

Oxygen and other medical supplies, including those used for the management of pregnancy complications, "are running dangerously low," the statement said.

“For example, more than 4,300 births have occurred in Ukraine since the start of the war and 80,000 Ukrainian women are expected to give birth in the next three months," the organizations said.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan is scheduled to meet with Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday, the first in-person, high-level talks between the two countries since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, an NSA spokesperson said on Sunday.

The Biden administration has been urging Beijing to use its influence with Moscow to condemn its war.

"The two sides will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia's war against Ukraine on regional and global security," NSA spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement.

Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic adviser to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Sullivan are also scheduled to meet in Rome “to continue coordinating a strong, united international response to President Putin’s war of choice," Horne said.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez