Ukraine and Russia traded aerial attacks on Saturday as President Volodymyr Zelensky held what he called a special meeting on next steps with top aides.
A Ukrainian drone struck the machine room building of one of power units at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine on Saturday afternoon, causing unspecified damage, Interfax reported, citing Rosatom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Likhachev. Core equipment wasn’t damaged, he said.
Ukraine’s southern military command denied any strikes, saying its military personnel “act exclusively within the framework of international humanitarian law and are aware of the consequences of any actions against nuclear facilities.” In a post on Facebook late Saturday, it added, “It is the Russian Federation that has illegally kept the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant under military control since March 2022, turning a civilian nuclear facility into an element of military infrastructure.”
On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said the Zaporizhzhia plant temporarily lost all off-site power for the 16th time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. No cause was immediately identified. The plant’s six reactors are in a state of “cold shutdown” and last produced electricity in 2022.
Earlier, a Ukrainian UAV strike on Russia’s Taganrog port caused a fire on a tanker, a fuel-storage tank and an administrative building, the regional governor said in a post on his Telegram channel on Saturday. No casualties or fuel leaks were reported, Yury Slyusar, governor of Rostov region, said on Telegram. The fire has been extinguished.
Robert Brovdi, Ukraine’s commander of unmanned forces, confirmed the strike, and added that drones had destroyed two Tu-142 aircraft and an Iskander ballistic missile launcher at the Taganrog military air base. He also said that an oil terminal in Feodosiya on the Crimea peninsula was hit.
Taganrog is located in southern Russia, on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov. The city also came under attack on May 27.
A fire broke at an oil depot in Armavir in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, sparked by falling drone debris in a strike confirmed by Zelenskyy. The blaze was been extinguished and no casualties were reported, according to a Telegram post of the region’s authorities.
Separately, Ukraine came under attack from Russian drones and missiles. Its air defense unit said it shot down five out of seven missiles and 279 out of 290 drones fired overnight.
The city of Shostka in the Sumy region, near Ukraine’s border with Russia, suffered major damage to its railway station. The facility is a regional hub for the city with a pre-war population of about 72,000, where “hundreds of civilians depart every day,” Ukraine’s state-run company Ukrzaliznytsia said on Facebook. Odesa on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast was also under drone fire.
Russia’ Defense Ministry said in a statement that it struck a group of targets — including military airfields, energy and transportation infrastructure facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces — using long-range, high-precision ground- and air-based weapons, as well as drones.
Posting on X, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “in contact every day with envoys of the President of the United States and our European partners” in search of an end to the conflict now well into its fifth year.
Priorities for the coming weeks include antiballistic missile capabilities, new decisions on supporting Ukraine’s energy sector, and a potential drone deal with the European Union.
Attending Zelenskyy’s meeting, according to the photo posted on X, were Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, chief of the presidential office Kyrylo Budanov, and top negotiator Rustem Umerov.
