Ukraine-Russia war latest: Fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant contained after explosions

A Russian missile strike on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine injured at least seven people and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes and civilian infrastructure buildings, the regional governor said on Sunday.

Two of the injured were hospitalised as a result of the late Saturday attack, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on the Telegram messaging app.

Kim posted photos showing single residential buildings almost destroyed, with building debris spread around. He said 23 private homes, 12 apartment buildings and a post office were damaged.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attack. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Moscow launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram that Russia had launched 76 attack drones and seven missiles targeting Ukraine overnight, striking eight locations throughout Ukraine. Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed 60 of the drones and one missile, it said.

Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv early on Sunday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on the Telegram messaging app. Witnesses heard a loud blast shaking the city soon after midnight.A fire that broke out near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Ukrainian shelling has been brought under control, the Russian-installed administration of the Russia-held plant in Ukraine said on Saturday. A civilian was killed but no plant employees or members of the emergency services had been injured and radiation levels remained normal.Ukraine on Saturday said it struck military targets and a gas pipeline in drone attacks on Russian territory. Russian authorities reported that the strikes sparked fires, killing three people and wounding two others.Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies said it uncovered a major graft scheme that procured military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices, two days after the agencies’ independence was restored following major protests.

More than 120 firefighters were trying to extinguish a fire at an oil depot in the Russian city of Sochi that was sparked by an Ukrainian drone attack, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said early on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app.

Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, said on Telegram that flights were halted at the city’s airport to ensure air safety.

Ukraine’s European allies praised Volodymyr Zelensky’s move to restore independence of Ukraine’s anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, after having voiced concerns about the original stripping of the agencies’ status.

Top European officials had told Mr Zelensky that Ukraine was jeopardising its bid for European Union membership by curbing the powers of its anti-graft authorities.

“It is important that anti-corruption institutions operate independently, and the law adopted on Thursday guarantees them every opportunity for a real fight against corruption,” Mr Zelensky wrote on Saturday after meeting the heads of the agencies, who briefed him on the latest investigation.

Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies said on Saturday they had uncovered a major graft scheme that procured military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices, two days after the agencies’ independence was restored following major protests.

The independence of Ukraine’s anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, NABU and SAPO, was reinstated by parliament on Thursday after a move to take it away resulted in the country’s biggest demonstrations since Russia’s invasion in 2022.

In a statement published by both agencies on social media, NABU and SAPO said they had caught a sitting lawmaker, two local officials and an unspecified number of national guard personnel taking bribes. None of them were identified in the statement.

“The essence of the scheme was to conclude state contracts with supplier companies at deliberately inflated prices,” it said, adding that the offenders had received kickbacks of up to 30 per cent of a contract’s cost. Four people had been arrested.

“There can only be zero tolerance for corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption and, as a result, a just sentence,” president Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

Mr Zelensky, who has far-reaching wartime presidential powers and still enjoys broad approval among Ukrainians, was forced into a rare political about-face when his attempt to bring NABU and SAPO under the control of his prosecutor-general sparked the first nationwide protests of the war.

He subsequently said that he had heard the people’s anger, and submitted a bill restoring the agencies’ former independence, which was voted through by parliament on Thursday.

Russian air defence units destroyed about 15 Ukrainian drones over Voronezh, the governor, Alexander Gusev, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The overnight attack resulted in several homes and utility buildings catching fire from falling drone debris and a woman was injured, the governor of the southern Russian region said on Sunday.

“The threat of further drone attacks remains,” Mr Gusev said in the post early on Sunday.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strike in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv says that its attacks inside Russia are aimed at destroying infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts and are in response to Russia’s relentless strikes on Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry said that its units destroyed 41 drones just before midnight on Saturday over Russian regions bordering Ukraine and over the waters of the Black Sea.

A Ukrainian drone strike reportedly injured a woman and sparked multiple fires in Russia’s southern Voronezh region, the local governor said today.

Meanwhile, Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian capital’s military administration.

Russia fired a missile at Kyiv early today, the city’s military administration said on Telegram.

Reuters witnesses described a loud explosion that shook the capital shortly after midnight.

The strike comes just days after Russia carried out its deadliest aerial assault on Kyiv this year, which left at least 31 people dead, including five children, and wounded more than 150.

Vladimir Putin is not ready for serious negotiations on peace in Ukraine, UK foreign secretary David Lammy has said in an interview with The Guardian.

“My sober assessment is that Putin is not ready to seriously negotiate,” Mr Lammy told the outlet.

“He still has maximalist and imperialist ambitions. The battle Ukraine has fought, with UK, European and American support, is immense.”

The foreign secretary also spoke of his admiration of the Ukrainian people.

“Even if the world left them behind, they’d still be waging a guerrilla war, such is their belief in their country. It’s deeply inspiring,” he said.

A fire that broke out near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Ukrainian shelling has been brought under control, the Russian-installed administration of the Russia-held plant in Ukraine said on Saturday.

Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Both sides have accused each other of firing or taking other actions that could trigger a nuclear accident.

The plant’s administration said on Telegram that a civilian had been killed in the shelling, but that no plant employees or members of the emergency services had been injured.

The station, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, is not operating but still requires power to keep its nuclear fuel cool.

The plant’s Russia-installed management said radiation levels remained within normal levels and the situation was under control.