As shells rained down near Europe’s largest nuclear facility and Russian forces struck in the south and east, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged vigilance ahead of Wednesday’s commemoration of 31 years of independence from Soviet domination.
Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to ‘promote despair and dread’ ahead of the August 24 festivities, which also mark six months since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday.
‘We must all be aware that Russia may try to do something especially terrible, particularly vicious this week,’ Zelenskiy added.
According to Russian official authorities, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who promotes Russia absorbing Ukraine was killed in a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow on Saturday evening.
They said Darya Dugina, the daughter of famed ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed when a suspected explosive device detonated on the Toyota Land Cruiser she was travelling in, and that they were considering ‘all versions’ of who was to blame.
The nightly curfew in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, will be extended for the full day on Wednesday, regional Governor Oleh Synehub announced on the Telegram messaging app.
As the half-year mark approaches for the war that has killed thousands and pushed millions to flee, Ukrainian military and local sources reported further Russian strikes overnight on sites in the country’s east and south.
Ukraine’s general staff announced on Facebook early Sunday that Russian soldiers had launched three attacks in Donbas in the previous 24 hours. The eastern border region, which is partially held by pro-Moscow separatists, has been a key target of Russia’s assault in recent months.
In the south, Russian forces successfully assaulted Blahodatne, a settlement on the border of Kherson and Mykolaiv districts. Mykolaiv was targeted by numerous S-300 missiles early Sunday, according to regional governor Vitaliy Kim on Telegram
The Black Sea shoreline has seen some of the bloodiest fighting in recent weeks.
To the northeast, the city of Nikopol, which is located across the Dnipro River from Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, was shelled five times overnight, according to regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko on Telegram. He claimed that 25 artillery munitions hit the city, triggering a fire at an industrial complex and knocking out power to 3,000 people.
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