Artillery fire rained down on a town near Europe’s biggest nuclear plant overnight and Russian missiles hit targets near Odessa, a Ukrainian Black Sea port and grain export hub, as the war headed towards the six-month mark of on Wednesday. August 24 will also mark 31 years of Ukraine’s independence from Soviet rule, and President Volodymyr Zelensky in an overnight video address called for vigilance, saying Moscow might try “something particularly nasty”. Russian authorities said Sunday they were investigating a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow that killed the daughter of Alexander Dugin, an ultranationalist Russian ideologue who advocates Russia’s absorption of Ukraine. While investigators said they were looking at “all options” when it came to finding who was responsible, the Russian Foreign Ministry speculated there could be a link to Ukraine, something Mr Zelensky’s adviser quickly dismissed. “Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this, because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state,” Mykhailo Podolyak told Ukrainian television, saying the incident was “karmic.” payback for supporters of Moscow’s invasion. As Ukraine prepared to mark its Independence Day, embroiled in a war that has leveled towns and cities, killed thousands and forced millions to flee, military and regional officials reported more Russian strikes on targets in the east and south of the country. Of particular concern was the bombing of Nikopol, a city across the Dnipro River from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. He has been detained by Russian forces since March. Nikopoli was bombed on five separate occasions overnight, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. He said 25 artillery shells hit the city, setting fire to industrial facilities and cutting power to 3,000 residents. Fighting near Zaporizhia and Saturday’s missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Voznesensk, which is not far from Ukraine’s second-largest nuclear power plant, have raised fears of a nuclear accident. Local authorities also reported rocket attacks overnight in the Odesa region, home to Black Sea ports critical to a United Nations-brokered plan to aid Ukrainian agricultural exports, key to global food supplies. , to reach the world markets again. Five Russian Kalibr cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea into the region overnight, the regional command’s spokesman said, citing information from the southern military command. Two were shot down by Ukrainian air defense while three hit agricultural targets, but there were no casualties. Russia said on Sunday the missiles destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made HIMARS rockets, while Kyiv said a grain bin was hit. There were no new reports of incidents in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, after a series of explosions made headlines in recent weeks. In his speech, Mr Zelensky referred obliquely to the explosions, for which Ukraine has not claimed responsibility, but analysts said at least some were made possible by new equipment used by its forces. “You can literally feel Crimea in the air this year, that the occupation there is only temporary and that Ukraine is coming back,” Mr Zelensky said. In the latest incident, a drone attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was foiled on Saturday morning, according to a Telegram post by Mikhail Razvozayev, the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, who is not recognized by the West. In a daily Facebook update, Ukraine’s general staff also reported several attempted Russian attacks in the past 24 hours in the Donbass, the eastern region partially controlled by pro-Moscow separatists and a key target of Russia’s campaign in recent months. In the south, Russian forces launched a successful attack on the village of Blahodatne on the border between Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. The city of Mykolaiv was hit by multiple S-300 missiles early Sunday, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed two M777 aircraft at combat positions in the Kherson region and a fuel depot in the Zaporizhzhia region. Reuters was unable to independently verify reports on the battlefield.
Nuclear fears
Fighting near the Russian-controlled plant and Saturday’s missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Voznesensk, not far from the country’s second-largest nuclear plant, have reignited fears of a nuclear accident. The Voznesensk attack was “another act of Russian nuclear terrorism,” state-run Energoatom, which runs Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants, said in a statement. Russia did not immediately respond to the accusation. Reuters was unable to verify the situation in Voznesensk. There were no reports of damage to the power plant. As Moscow and Ukraine continue to trade accusations of shelling around the Zaporizhzhia complex, the United Nations has called for a demilitarized zone around the plant and talks have resumed for a visit by its nuclear agency to the area. Mr Zelenskiy in his speech also referred obliquely to a recent series of explosions in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, but analysts said at least some were made possible by new equipment used by its forces. “You can literally feel Crimea in the air this year, that the occupation there is only temporary and that Ukraine is coming back,” Zelensky said. In the latest incident, the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, who is not recognized by the West, said a drone attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet was thwarted on Saturday morning. “It crashed right over fleet headquarters. He fell on the roof and burned. The attack failed,” Mikhail Razvozayev told Telegram. Mr Razvozhayev said the area’s anti-aircraft system had been put back into operation and asked residents to stop filming and sharing pictures of its operation. Ukrainian media reported explosions in nearby towns, including the resorts of Yevpatoriya, Olenivka and Zaozyornoye. Further west, five Kalibr missiles were fired from the Black Sea in the Odesa region overnight, according to the regional administration, citing the southern military command. Two were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, while three hit grain storage, but there were no casualties. Odessa and other ports in the region are at the center of a UN-brokered deal to allow Ukraine’s grain exports, blocked by the war, to reach world markets again. On Sunday, Turkey’s defense ministry said four more ships with food left Ukrainian ports, bringing the total number to 31. The Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
