Moscow has accused Kyiv of launching dozens of drone attacks, including one that sparked a fire at a nuclear power plant, as Ukrainians marked 34 years since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union.
The drone attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant in western Russia, 37 miles (60km) from the border with Ukraine, caused damage to an auxiliary transformer and forced a 50% reduction in the operating capacity of a reactor, Russian authorities said. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the alleged attack.
The fire sparked by the drone, which was shot down, had been extinguished and there were no casualties or increased radiation levels, the plant said on Sunday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, reported that radiation levels were “normal” near the Kursk plant. The IAEA has repeatedly warned of the risks of fighting near nuclear plants after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia’s defence ministry said at least 95 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted across more than a dozen Russian regions on Sunday, when Ukraine celebrated its 1991 declaration of independence.
Ukrainian drones were also shot down over areas far from the frontline, including St Petersburg in the north-west. Firefighters responded to a blaze at the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s Leningrad region, home to a large fuel export terminal. The regional governor said approximately 10 Ukrainian drones were shot down, and debris had ignited the fire.
Ukraine’s outgunned army has relied heavily on drones to respond to Russia’s invasion, notably targeting oil infrastructure to hit one of the main sources of Moscow’s revenues for funding the war.
Ukraine, meanwhile, said Russia had attacked with a ballistic missile and 72 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones, 48 of which the air force said had been shot down.
A Russian drone strike killed a 47-year-old woman in Dnipropetrovsk, the eastern region’s governor said.
Russia has recently claimed new advances in the war, including taking two villages in the eastern Donetsk region on Saturday.
The Ukrainian commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Sunday that Kyiv’s forces had reclaimed three other villages in Donetsk, which has emerged as the focal point for peace talks.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the country’s independence: “This is how Ukraine strikes when its calls for peace are ignored.”
He added: “Today, both the US and Europe agree: Ukraine has not yet fully won, but it will certainly not lose. Ukraine has secured its independence. Ukraine is not a victim; it is a fighter.”
Zelenskyy said that meeting his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, would be “the most effective way forward” amid stalled diplomatic attempts to end the war.
He said the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine once the war ended would be “important” as Kyiv sought to work on potential security guarantees with its allies.
The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, on a visit to Kyiv on Sunday, said it was not “the choice of Russia how the future sovereignty, independence, liberty of Ukraine is guaranteed”.
The US special envoy Keith Kellogg also attended the independence day celebrations, during which the Ukrainian president awarded him the country’s order of merit.
Zelenskyy, asked about reports that the US had revoked permission for strikes deep in Russia while Donald Trump sought to mediate a peace deal with Putin, said Ukraine had lately been using its own weapons to hit Russia and did not consult Washington over this.
Also on Sunday, Ukraine and Russia said they had each sent back 146 prisoners of war and civilians in the latest of a series of swaps that remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the countries.
Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
Putin has repeatedly rebuffed calls from Ukraine and the west for an immediate ceasefire.
The fighting has forced millions of people to flee their homes and destroyed cities and villages across eastern and southern Ukraine.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
