At least three explosions were heard this morning around 5.30 in the center of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, allegedly due to a Russian drone attack. City mayor Vitali Klitschko said the explosions hit the central Shevchenkivskyi district and “emergency services were activated”.
Klitschko wrote in Telegram that ten Shahed drones were shot down in the Kiev region. The news of the attack was confirmed by the governor of the Kyiv region Oleksiy Kuleba who added that the defense systems responded to the attack.
Vitaliy Bunechko, head of the Zhytomyr region that borders Kiev, warned on Telegram that there could be a second wave of drone strikes and advised people to stay in bomb shelters.
Russian troops also shelled the Nikopol region throughout the night with Grads, Hurricanes and heavy artillery. This was reported by the head of the regional military administration Valentyn Reznichenko, adding to Telegram that, in addition to Nikopol, Moscow “also targeted Marganets. More than 50 bullets were fired at residential areas. Several private homes were damaged in Nikopol , a gas station, a gas pipeline and power lines. In Marhanka, Russian shells damaged more than a dozen private houses and farm buildings, cars, gas stoves and power grids. Two fires broke out in the vicinity of citizens. I firefighters have already tamed them”.
Central Zaporizhzhia
The safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (Znpp) remains the exclusive responsibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia and Ukraine. This was stated by a senior Russian diplomat in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks on an agreement to withdraw heavy weapons from the nuclear power plant. “It is not worthy of a French leader to release false statements in the global media space – said the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations, Mikhail Ulyanov – The determination of the parameters of the ‘protected zone’ around the Znpp, actively promoted by the director-general of the IAEA Rafael Grossi, is the exclusive competence of the IAEA, Russia and Ukraine”.
The diplomat added that no heavy weapons have ever been deployed at the nuclear plant, while “a limited number of light weapons on the territory of the plant are absolutely necessary to protect it from Ukrainian attacks and ensure nuclear safety, in accordance with the standards of the ‘Aiaea”.
Yesterday, Macron said that concrete steps to remove heavy weapons from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are being discussed, and that practical steps to implement them are being discussed. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi discussed the creation of a safety zone at the power plant and the agency’s next mission during a meeting in Paris with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal. In a statement released after the talks, the IAEA said Grossi and Shmygal had “made some progress” in the safe zone discussions.
