President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant next week as they prepare to celebrate their Independence Day, as fresh explosions rocked Crimea and a missile injured 12 civilians near a nuclear power plant.
In his late-night video address, Zelenskiy said Saturday that Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread discouragement and fear” among them as it marks the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule.
“We should all be aware that this week Russia might try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelenskiy said ahead of the anniversary on August 24, which also marks six months since the invasion began in large scale of Ukraine.
Tension is also rising in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, where a curfew will be extended throughout the day on Wednesday, regional governor Oleh Synehub said on Saturday. The north-eastern city is regularly hit by Russian bombing and normally has a curfew from 10pm to 6am, but extra precautions were required on Independence Day.
Also on Saturday, a Russian missile struck a residential area of a southern Ukrainian city not far from a nuclear power plant, injuring 12 civilians, Russian and Ukrainian officials said.
The attack on the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant and further bombings near the Zaporizhzhia station, the largest such facility in Europe, raised new fears of a wartime nuclear accident, they said Ukrainian officials.
Zelenskiy in his speech also referred obliquely to a series of explosions in recent days in Crimea, the Ukrainian territory occupied and annexed by Russia during a 2014 incursion.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, but analysts have said at least some have been made possible by new equipment used by Ukrainian forces.
“You can literally hear Crimea in the air this year, that the occupation there is only temporary and that Ukraine is coming back,” Zelenskiy said.
In the latest attack in Crimea, the Russian-appointed governor, who is not recognized by Ukraine or Western governments, said a drone had struck a building near the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Saturday morning.
The video shared on Twitter appeared to show Russian air defenses trying to destroy the UAV and dark plumes of smoke rising from the city.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, governor of Sevastopol, wrote on Telegram that a drone had hit the roof of the headquarters on Saturday and said there were no casualties, Russian news agency Tass reports.
“I’m at the [Black Sea] now the headquarters of the fleet. A drone hit the roof here 25 minutes ago. Unfortunately, he was not shot down… No casualties,” he wrote.
Later on Saturday, Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov contradicted the earlier statement, telling Telegram that local air defenses shot down the drone over the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.
“Air defense systems successfully hit all targets over the territory over Crimea on Saturday morning. There are no casualties or material damage,” its head, Sergei Aksyonov, told Telegram.
Authorities in Sevastopol reported Saturday night that the city’s air defense systems had returned to action in the evening.
Ukrainian media reported explosions in nearby towns, including Yevpatoriya, Olenivka and Zaozyornoye stations.
After the strike near the South Ukraine power plant, Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, told Telegram that four children were among the injured.
Private houses and a five-storey apartment block were damaged in Voznesensk, 30 km from the plant, Ukraine’s second largest.
The Mykolaiv region prosecutor general’s office, updating an earlier number, said 12 civilians had been injured.
State-owned Energoatom, which runs Ukraine’s four nuclear power generators, called the attack in Voznesensk “another act of Russian nuclear terrorism.”
“It is possible that this missile was specifically aimed at the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, which the Russian military tried to recover in early March,” Energoatom said in a statement.
Russia did not immediately respond to the accusation. Reuters was unable to verify the situation in Voznesensk. There were no reports of any damage to the plant in Southern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Albanian defense ministry said on Saturday that three people with Russian and Ukrainian passports have been arrested after trying to enter a military base and a weapons factory in central Albania.
The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that two of its soldiers were injured while trying to arrest them.
“Three citizens with Russian and Ukrainian passports tried to enter the factory,” the ministry said in a statement sent to the media.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said the three people are “suspected of espionage”.