Ukraine War Briefing: Deadly Shelling Hits kyiv, Russia Speeds Up Kursk Evacuation

A A 35-year-old man and his four-year-old son were killed kyiv (AFP) – Russian rockets hit kyiv on Saturday night, Ukrainian emergency services said Sunday. In addition to the two dead, three other people were injured when rockets hit homes in the capital’s Brovary district, authorities said. Explosions rang out across central and eastern Kiev on Saturday night, AFP journalists saw, while the Ukrainian air force said Russian missiles were heading toward the city. Flashes of lightning were seen in the night sky. Air raids on several other Ukrainian regions were also reported.

Russia has announced that it is evacuating tens of thousands of people from its Kursk region.Acting governor of the Kursk region Alexei Smirnov said on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app that he had “instructed” the head of the Belovsky district in the southwest of the region to “accelerate” the execution of evacuation orders. Local officials detailed the scale of the evacuations of civilians from towns and villages near the combat zone. “More than 76,000 people have been temporarily relocated to safe places,” an official from the region’s Emergency Situations Ministry was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency at a briefing.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were fighting in Russia’s Kursk region. He said the operation was part of kyiv’s efforts to restore justice after Russia’s 2022 invasion. The Ukrainian president had previously remained silent on the operation. In his speech on Saturday night, he said he had discussed the operation with Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi “and our actions and how we are pushing the war to the territory of the aggressor.” Thanking the soldiers involved, he added: “Ukraine is proving that it can really deliver justice and is ensuring exactly the kind of pressure that is needed – pressure on the aggressor.”

At least 13 people were injured in the city of Kursk after debris from a missile launched by Ukraine fell on a nine-story residential building.The region’s authorities announced on Sunday that the residents of the building were to be evacuated to a temporary shelter, Kursk Mayor Igor Kutsak said. He added that the entire city was on alert for air raids.

Russian Defense Ministry claims to have prevented Ukraine from advancing further on fifth day of Kursk attackDan Sabbagh reports. Fighting reportedly took place in three villages located between 11 and 18 kilometers from the international border – Ivashkovskoye, Malaya Loknya and Olgovka – similar locations to where Ukraine has reportedly advanced before. The FSB, Russia’s internal security agency, has imposed a “counterterrorism” regime on Kursk and two neighboring oblasts, Bryansk and Belgorod, giving authorities sweeping powers to lock down an area and impose controls on communications.

The Russian nuclear agency warned on Saturday of a direct threat to the Kursk nuclear power plant, less than 50 kilometres from the scene of the fighting.“The actions of the Ukrainian military pose a direct threat” to the Kursk nuclear power plant in western Russia, state news agencies quoted the atomic energy agency Rosatom as saying. There is no evidence that Ukrainian forces are threatening the plant. On Friday, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called for “utmost restraint.”

Regional power outages were reported after an electrical substation was hit in the Kursk region. Acting Governor Alexei Smirnov said Friday that a fire had broken out at a transformer substation that was hit by debris from a Ukrainian drone. Electricity was cut off in some border areas, including Kurchatov, where the nuclear power plant is located, he added.

Belarus sent more troops on Saturday to strengthen its border with Ukraine, The Belarusian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian charge d’affaires, demanding that measures be taken to prevent such incidents from happening again and suggesting that a repeat of such incidents would prompt Belarus to question whether Kiev’s diplomatic presence in Minsk was “appropriate.” The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Ukrainian navy and military intelligence services attacked and damaged a former offshore gas platform used by Russian forces in the Black Sea, a navy spokesman said on Saturday. It released a video taken at night showing an explosion on an offshore platform and the fire that followed. It said that half a day before the attack, Russian forces had deployed military equipment and personnel to the platform. Moscow did not immediately comment.

Three people were killed in two Russian attacks on Ukraine’s eastern front in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, local officials said Saturday. A civilian was killed and several others injured in a Russian missile strike on the town of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region, the local governor said.

A civilian was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian city of Lipetsk, about 300 km from the Ukrainian border.the regional government said on Saturday on the Telegram messaging app. Igor Artamonov, governor of the Lipetsk region, said Russian air defense systems intercepted 19 Ukrainian drones overnight

Elsewhere on the front line, Ukraine on Saturday reported the lowest number of “combat engagements” on its territory since June 10.It could be a sign that its incursion is helping to relieve pressure on other parts of the vast front line where Moscow’s troops have been advancing.

Russia has launched an airstrike on kyiv, with air defense systems repelling the strikes, the Ukrainian capital’s mayor and military administration officials said Sunday morning.“Air defense units are operational, the air raid alert continues,” Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. It is not yet known whether the attack caused any damage or injuries.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy pledged on Saturday to “strengthen our Ukrainian spiritual independence,” That suggests the country’s leaders are moving toward effectively banning the branch of the Orthodox Church that has ties to Moscow. Membership in the independent church loyal to the Kiev Patriarchate has grown since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022. But the minority church with ties to Moscow retains its influence, and Ukrainian leaders accuse it of abetting the invasion and trying to poison public opinion.