Near diesel tanks

Explosive device dropped on Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant

The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant(Bild: Associated Press)

According to the Russian-controlled management of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in south-eastern Ukraine, a critical infrastructure facility was fired upon. The Ukrainian army was responsible for the shelling. According to the nuclear power plant management, an explosive device was dropped near the fence where the diesel tanks are located. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been informed.

The information cannot be independently verified. Both warring parties have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the nuclear power plant site. Shortly after the start of their invasion, Russian troops took control of the power plant.

Massive drone attacks on Ukraine
According to Ukrainian reports, the Russian armed forces carried out massive drone attacks on Thursday night. Around three dozen drones were aimed at several areas and hit civilian infrastructure, the authorities said. Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region in the east, announced on the short messaging service Telegram that repairs were underway. He explained that "television infrastructure objects" had been hit, but gave no further details.

Shahed drones from Iran in action
In the neighboring Sumy region in the northeast, the authorities announced that infrastructure in four cities had been attacked by Iranian-made Shahed drones. The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 22 of the 36 drones fired by Russia overnight - five of them in Mykolaiv in the south and in Dnipropetrovsk in the south. It remains unclear where the other drones were intercepted or possibly hit.

Meanwhile, Russia announced that one person had been killed and three others injured by Ukrainian attacks in the Russian border region of Belgorod. The dead man was a driver and the injured were a man and two women, the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced on Telegram on Thursday. He also reported damage to buildings.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that eight Ukrainian missiles had been shot down by the air defense while approaching Belgorod. This could not be independently verified at first. Initial images on social networks did not show whether the damage was caused by falling debris or whether missiles did get through.

Russia, which itself launched a brutal war of aggression against its neighboring country more than two years ago, repeatedly complains about Ukrainian shelling, especially in the border region. However, the number of casualties and damage are disproportionate to the consequences of the war in the attacked Ukraine.