Ukraine updates: Russia downs drones headed for Moscow

An explosion shook an optical-mechanical factory in the town of Sergiev Posad, 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Moscow. At least 60 people were injured in the blast, Russian news agencies reported.

Local authorities said one person was killed and eight people remain missing.

The state-owned TASS agency reported the explosion appeared to have occurred in a warehouse containing pyrotechnic equipment. The popular online news channel Mash said a pyrotechnics firm had been renting the warehouse.

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said that 38 apartment blocks in the surrounding area had been
damaged, along with two schools, a sports complex and a store. 

Unverified videos on social media showed a column of smoke and high-rise buildings with windows blown out.

TASS cited emergency services as dismissing earlier reports that a Ukrainian drone attack could have caused the blast.

Russia, which has been waging a full-scale war against neighboring Ukraine for more than 17 months, has increasingly become the target of enemy drone attacks in recent weeks. The capital Moscow has been particularly affected.

Russian forces have used drones and a variety of rockets in attacks on civilian buildings and infrastructure in Ukraine, causing damage that far exceeds that done in Russia.

A Russian strike has hit the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.

Ukraine's president said three people were killed in the strike.

"The rescue operation is underway," he added.

Yuriy Malashko, the head of the Zaporizhzhia region, said Russia had hit a "church and retail outlets" in the regional capital's Shevchenkivskyi district.

"Medics are treating the wounded," he said.

"The blast wave smashed windows in high-rise buildings," he added. 

Kremlin official Alexei Petrov posted far-right and neo-Nazi material on his social media accounts between the years of 2011 and 2014,  Reuters news agency reported.

Petrov is an advisor in the office of Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's presidential commissioner for children's rights. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova for allegedly deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine and taking them to Russia.

Reuters said that Petrov made at least three social media posts between the ages of containing material linked to far-right and white supremacist groups between the ages of 16 and 19.

Petrov's Skype handle incorporates the name of the white supremacist organization "Wotanjugend," the news agency reported, adding that his Instagram handle contains a coded reference to Adolf Hitler.

In a statement responding to questions posed by Reuters, Petrov said: "Unequivocally, I never had, nor do I have, any links to neo-Nazi organisations."

"I have never been a member of, and did not have social network accounts linked to or relating to, Nazi organisations."

He added that it was impossible for him to remember what he posted years ago.

Ukrainian shelling has hit a two-story building in the Donetsk region, Russian-backed Governor Denis Pushilin says.

Pushilin said that a child was killed and two people were injured in the attack.

Most of the Donetsk region, which is part of eastern Ukraine's Donbas, is under the control of pro-Russian separatists and Russian forces.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has denied Moscow's claim that Kyiv tried to attack the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) with a drone.

"Undoubtedly, Ukraine did not carry out any kind of drone attack on the ZNPP, was not planning and will not even in theory do so," Mykhailo Podolyak told the Reuters news agency.

The Russian state news agency RIA said that Ukraine had attempted to strike a spent nuclear fuel storage facility at the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Russian security forces had reached the conclusion after analyzing the flight path of a Ukrainian drone, RIA said.

A border crossing between Russia and Ukraine that had been closed since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February last year, has reopened so that Ukrainian refugees can return home.

"It is possible and necessary to leave via the Kolotilovka-Pokrovka humanitarian corridor!" Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Wednesday, adding that the crossing has been open since Saturday.

Many refugees trying to find their way back to Ukrainian-controlled regions have been unable to cross the front lines and have had to make their way through EU countries or Georgia.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow is planning to increase its military presence along its western borders — that's to say, closer to NATO members such as Finland and Poland.

Shoigu pointed to the strengthening of Poland's military forces along its border with Belarus and said that he expected NATO to begin deploying significant forces and weaponry to its newest member state, Finland.

The Polish government is sending 2,000 soldiers to its eastern border with Belarus amid fears over the recently arrived battle-hardened troops of the Russian Wagner mercenary group.

Belarus has begun carrying out military exercises on its side of the border and strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko has said on several occasions that he is holding back Wagner fighters who want to attack Poland.

The Polish government decided to send twice as many soldiers as the Border Guard had requested. 

Poland is also dealing with an increase in the number of migrants, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, who have been trying to cross the border from Belarus.

Warsaw has been accusing Minsk of bringing migrants to Belarus to then send them across into its EU neighbors for the past two years.

The Ukrainian military said it repelled Russian attacks in eastern regions amid heavy fighting.

There have been more than 30 battles in the past day, General Staff spokesman Andriy Kovalev said in a statement.

"Heavy fighting is taking place," he added.

He said there were also Russian counterattacks in the Donetsk region south of the Russian-controlled town of Bakhmut near the village of Klishchiivka.

Weapons maker Rheinmetall is reportedly preparing another export of battle tanks to Ukraine after acquiring 50 Leopard 1 tanks from the Belgian company OIP Land Systems.

Ahead of their use on the battlefield, the vehicles are expected to be re-equipped at the German locations of the Düsseldorf group, according to Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper.

It is thought that about 30 of the 50 main battle tanks are to be delivered to Ukraine, although this may take several months.

The Leopard 1 battle tank is the forerunner of the Leopard 2 currently used by Germany's military, the Bundeswehr. 

Rheinmetall initially wanted to buy Leopard 1 tanks from a Swiss company to make them available to Ukraine, but Switzerland did not issue an export license because of its neutrality law.

The death toll in eastern Ukraine's Pokrovsk climbed from seven to nine, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday. 

Two Iskander missiles hit the city center just 40 minutes apart from each other on Monday, said local authorities.  

Zelenskyy accused Moscow of targeting rescue workers as the second attack is said to have occurred while Ukraine's paramedics were starting rescue operations. 

"This is a deliberate decision of the terrorists to cause the greatest pain and damage," Zelenskyy said during his evening video message.

At least 82 people have been injured and multiple high-rise buildings were damaged, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the military administration of the province. 

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that its forces had hit a Ukrainian command post in Pokrovsk, which is known in Russia as Krasnoarmeysk.

Russian air defenses shot down two combat drones moving toward Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, the city's mayor said on Wednesday. 

One drone was downed in the Domodedovo region which is on the southern outskirts of Moscow and another on the Minsk highway area, west of the capital, the mayor said. 

"At the moment, there is no information about victims of the fall of the wreckage," he said, adding that emergency services were on the ground. 

Moscow has become the target of multiple drone attacks in recent weeks. Ukrainian drones were down on Sunday and Monday, reported Russian officials. 

An office block in Moscow's main business district was struck by debris from a drone being shot down last month. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 30, warned that "war" was approaching Russia with the "symbolic centers and military bases" being considered as targets. 

ns/sms (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)