Fighting in Kursk region of Russia intensifies, father and daughter killed in missile attack

Fire breaks out at Zaporizhia power plant

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials reported a fire near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia power plant. Russian troops set car tires on fire inside a cooling tower to create the appearance of a fire, according to Yevgen Yevtushenko, head of the military administration in Nikopol, which is across the Enehodar River from the occupied city where the power plant is located.

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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 exploit Western fears of escalation. Yevgen Baretsky, the Russian-appointed governor of the occupied Zaporizhia region, accused Ukrainian troops of shelling the plant and starting the fire. He did not provide any evidence to support the claim.

Nighttime drone and missile attacks

Russian drone and missile attacks on Kiev on Sunday night killed two people, including a 4-year-old boy. The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched four ballistic missiles and 57 Shahed drones at Ukraine. Air defense forces shot down 53 drones.

The bodies of a 35-year-old man and his son were found under the rubble after missile debris landed in a residential area in the Brovary district on the outskirts of Kiev, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service. Three other people in the area were injured in the attack. Sergei Popko, head of the Kiev city military administration, said it was the second time Kiev had been targeted this month.

Popko said ballistic missiles did not hit the capital, but suburbs were attacked and drones aimed at the capital were shot down.

In Russia, the governor of Kursk region said a Ukrainian missile shot down by Russian air defenses landed on a residential building, injuring 15 people. The Russian Defense Ministry said 35 drones were shot down overnight in the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.

Ukraine has not commented on the drone strikes in Russia, but the pace of similar drone strikes in Ukraine has stepped up in recent weeks, mainly targeting military infrastructure and oil depots.

Belarus says it is sending troops to border

Meanwhile, Belarus said it was sending more troops to its border with Ukraine, saying Ukrainian drones had violated its airspace as part of Kiev’s military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

Authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko said Belarusian air defense forces destroyed dozens of targets flying over the Russian border from Ukraine in the Mogilev region.

“The Ukrainian armed forces violated all norms of conduct and violated the airspace of the Republic of Belarus. In the eastern direction, in the Kostiukovichi region, very close to us,” Lukashenko said at a conference in Minsk.

Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said the government considered the violation of its airspace a provocation and was “prepared to take retaliatory action.”