Fire at the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant
Meanwhile, a fire in the vicinity of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Power Plant was reported by Ukrainian officials. According to Yevhen Yevtushenko, the head of the military administration of Nikopol, which is across the river from occupied Enerhodar where the plant is located, Russian forces set fire to automobile tyres in the cooling towers to make it appear as though a fire had broken out.
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“Perhaps this is a provocation or an attempt to create panic in the settlements on the right bank of the former reservoir,” he said. Zelensky also said Russia was using the plant to blackmail Ukraine and playing on Western fears of escalation. Yevhen Balytskyi, the Russia-appointed governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the plant and causing the fire. He provided no evidence for the claim.
Overnight drone and missile attacks
Overnight into Sunday, a Russian drone and missile barrage on Kyiv killed two people, including a 4-year-old boy. Russia attacked Ukraine with four ballistic missiles and 57 Shahed drones, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defences shot down 53 of the drones.
The bodies of a 35-year-old man and his son were found under rubble after missile fragments fell on a residential area in Kyiv’s suburban Brovary district, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Another three people in the district were wounded in the attack. It was the second time this month that Kyiv has been targeted, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration.
Popko said ballistic missiles didn’t reach the capital, but that suburbs took the hit, while drones aiming for the capital were shot down.
In Russia, Kursk’s regional governor said that a Ukrainian missile shot down by Russian air defences fell on a residential building, wounding 15 people. The Russian Defence Ministry said that 35 drones were shot down overnight over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.
Ukraine hasn’t commented on the drone attacks inside Russia. But they come as Ukraine has increased the pace of similar drone attacks largely targeting military infrastructure and oil depots in recent weeks.
Belarus says it’s sending forces to its border
Meanwhile, Belarus said that it was sending more troops to its border with Ukraine, saying Ukrainian drones had violated its airspace as part of Kyiv’s military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko said Belarusian air defence forces destroyed dozens of targets flying from Ukraine over the Mogilev region, which borders Russia.
“The Ukrainian armed forces violated all rules of conduct and violated the airspace of the Republic of Belarus. In the eastern direction, very close to us in the Kostyukovichi district,” Lukashenko said at a meeting in Minsk.
Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said the government regards the violation of its airspace as a provocation and is “ready for retaliatory action.”
