Artillery shells have rained down on a city near Europe’s biggest nuclear plant and Russian missiles targeted the Black Sea port of Odessa as Ukraine warned of the potential for more serious attacks by Russia as the war nears its six-month anniversary.
Wednesday marks 31 years of Ukraine’s independence from Soviet rule, as well as six months since the invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for renewed vigilance, saying Moscow could try “something particularly ugly”.
In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelenskiy said he had discussed “all the threats” with French President Emmanuel Macron and word had been sent to other world leaders including Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“All of Ukraine’s partners have been informed about what the terrorist state can prepare for this week,” Zelenskiy said, referring to Russia.
Britain’s Financial Times, in an article published on Sunday, quoted Gennady Gatilov, Moscow’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, as saying Erdogan had tried to facilitate dialogue.
But Gatilov dismissed speculation about talks between Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying there “was not any practical platform for having this meeting”, the report said.
As shells continued to rain down in Ukraine, Russian authorities were investigating a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow that killed the daughter of Alexander Dugin, an ultra-nationalist ideologue who advocated Ukraine being absorbed into Russia.
While investigators said they were considering “all versions” when it came to establishing who was responsible, the Russian Foreign Ministry speculated there could be a link to Ukraine, something a Zelenskiy adviser dismissed.
“Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state,” Mykhailo Podolyak said on Ukrainian television, suggesting the incident was “karmic” payback for supporters of Moscow’s invasion.
As Ukraine prepared to mark its independence day embroiled in a war that has flattened towns and cities, killed thousands and forced millions to flee, officials reported more Russian strikes on targets in the east and south of the country.
Of particular concern was the shelling of Nikopol, a city near Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine and Europe’s biggest nuclear plant.
Nikopol was shelled on five different occasions overnight, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.
He said 25 shells hit the city, causing a fire at an industrial premises and cutting power to 3000 residents.
The fighting in the proximity of Zaporizhzhia and Saturday’s missile strike on the southern Ukrainian town of Voznesensk, not far from Ukraine’s second-largest atomic plant, spurred fears of a nuclear accident.
On Sunday, US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Macron held a phone call stressing the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear installations, while underlining their “steadfast commitment” to Ukraine.
Local authorities also reported overnight missile attacks in Ukraine’s Odessa region, home to ports critical to a UN-brokered plan to help Ukrainian agricultural exports reach world markets again.
Five Russian Kalibr cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea at the region overnight, a regional administration official said, citing information from the southern military command. Two were shot down by Ukrainian air defences and three hit agricultural targets, but there were no casualties.
Russia said on Sunday the missiles had destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made rockets. Kyiv said a granary had been hit.
In a daily Facebook update, Ukraine’s general staff reported several attempted Russian assaults over the past 24 hours in Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine partially controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
In the south, Russian forces conducted a successful assault on the village of Blahodatne on the border between the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, it said.
The city of Mykolaiv was hit with multiple S-300 missiles early on Sunday, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had destroyed two M777 Howitzers in combat positions in the Kherson region, and a fuel depot in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the battlefield reports.
