Drones and missiles continue to target Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities claim
Explosive drones and missiles continued to bombard Kyiv on Sunday night, less than 24 hours after suffering the biggest drone attack since the start of the war, according to the local military authorities.
“More than 40 aerial targets were detected and destroyed by our air defence. Attacks on Kyiv have been repelled”, the Kyiv civil and military administration said on its Telegram channel.
The attacks on Sunday night was was carried out using cruise missiles launched by TU-95MS strategic bombers and explosive drones, it added.
The local authority accused Kremlin of trying to “keep the civilian population in a state of deep psychological tension” with continuous attacks aimed at civilian infrastructures.
The roof of a building was damaged by falling debris, according to the same source, which also published a photo of a hole in what appeared to be a corrugated iron roof.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said there were no casualties caused by the attacks on Sunday night.
Ukrainian authorities have reported some 15 large-scale drone attacks targeting the capital since the start of May.
On Saturday night, two people were killed and three injured in what the Ukrainian authorities called “the largest drone attack” on Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, 58 of the 59 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched on the capital that night were shot down.
Ukraine accuses Russia of plotting a nuclear plant “provocation”
Ukraine’s military intelligence has claimed, without offering evidence, that Russia is plotting a “large-scale provocation” at a nuclear power plant it occupies in the southeast of the country with the aim of disrupting a looming Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Russian forces would strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, and then report a radioactive leak in order to trigger an international probe that would pause the hostilities, the statement said.
Ukraine claimed the disruption is intended to give the Russian forces the respite they need to regroup ahead of the counter-offensive.
Russia “disrupted the rotation of personnel of the permanent monitoring mission” of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency that was scheduled for Saturday, the statement added.
The claim mirrors similar statements Moscow regularly makes, alleging without evidence that Kyiv is plotting provocations involving various dangerous weapons or substances in order to then accuse Russia of war crimes.
Prigozhin claims Kremlin has banned reporting about him on state media
Founder of Russia’s paramilitary group Wagner claimed on Sunday that Kremlin officials had banned reporting about him on state media.
Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the state television of playing down his role in taking down the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut earlier this month.
Such an approach, Prigozhin said in an audio message, will result in a backlash from the Russian people.
“Wagner is not a piece of slippery soap which the bureaucrats have got used to shoving all over the place,” Prigozhin said. “Wagner is an awl, a stiletto that you cannot hide.”
Prigozhin said that 72,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in Bakhmut with up to 140,000 injured.
The 61-year-old has frequently released videos downplaying Putin’s top military brass since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, accusing the leader of ignoring his cautions.
