Ukraine updates: Kursk governor calls for quicker evacuation

Russian media including TASS on Sunday evening cited state nuclear energy company Rosatom as saying the main fire at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant had been extinguished. 

Ukraine and Russia had blamed each other for the fire at the facility. Russia said Ukraine had fired on the site, Ukraine alleged sabotage.

Both sides said a cooling tower at Europe's largest nuclear power plant had been damaged in the fire. 

But both sides, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said no abnormal radiation levels had been detected.

A fire broke out at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which is under the control of Russia'sforces.

The Russian-installed governor of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region said the blaze occurred in one of the plant's cooling towers and blamed Kyiv.

"As a result of shelling of the town of Energodar by the Ukrainian armed forces, there was a fire at a cooling system," Governor Yevgeny Balitsky said on messaging platform Telegram. 

Both Balitsky and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there had been no detected change in the radiation levels around the plant.

Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of having started the fire. 

A local official in the Ukrainian city of Nikopol, which looks out onto the plant, said Russian forces set fire to a large number of car tires in the cooling towers, citing unofficial information. He urged residents to remain calm.

The Russian management of the plant said rescuers were working to put out a fire near the cooling towers and that the blaze had had no impact on the plant and its safety.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday evening that Russia had carried out nearly 2,000 cross-border strikes on Ukraine's northern Sumy region from Kursk over the course of the summer, strikes which he said merited a "fair response."

"Artillery, mortars, drones. We also record missile strikes, and each such strike deserves a fair response,"  he said in his daily evening television address.

The Ukrainian leader had acknowledged his army's incursion into Kursk in his nightly address the day before.

Russian forces are continuing their offensive in eastern Ukraine, with fighting centered around the town of Pokrovsk in the region of Donetsk, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Kyiv's forces repelled 26 assaults on the town by Russian units on Sunday alone.

They also said that Russian troops had been attempting to advance toward the settlement of Niu-York, south of the town of Toretsk, which was targeted by Russian air strikes.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it hit Ukrainian units in areas up to 30 kilometers (20 miles) into Russian territory.

It said Russian forces had "foiled attempts by enemy mobile groups with armored vehicles to break through deep into Russian territory."

The ministry said Moscow's forces hit enemy units near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, which lie in the Kursk region some 25 kilometers and 30 kilometers respectively from Russia's border with Ukraine.

Ukraine launched its surprise incursion into Russia on Tuesday.

Belarus said it was moving tanks nearer to its border with Ukraine.

It comes a day after Belarusian authorities claimed they had shot down several Ukrainian combat drones that had entered Belarusian airspace.

Belarus' Defense Ministry said that the vehicles were headed for the southeastern Gomel and Mazyr regions that border Ukraine.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko had previously ordered the reinforcement of troops in the two regions after the alleged Ukrainian aerial incursion.

Belarus is an ally of Russia and was used by Moscow as a staging ground at the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukrainian forces have been pushing forward in Russian border regions over the past several days in a surprise incursion.

Russia's Foreign Ministry vowed to deliver a "tough response" to Ukrainian incursions into three of its border regions.

"A tough response from the Russian army will not be long in coming," ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

She said that a Ukrainian strike hit a multistory residential building in the Kursk region, injuring 13 people. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian forces likely used a North Korean missile during an overnight airstrike near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

The strike on the district of Brovary, which lies immediately northeast of the city, killed a man and his 4-year-old son.

"According to preliminary information, the Russians used a North Korean missile in this attack," the Ukrainian president said in a post on social media.

He said that pyrotechnic experts were still examining the missile.

Pyongyang and Moscow signed a comprehensive partnership treaty in June, which included a mutual defense pledge.

The US and its allies have accused North Korea of providing weaponry to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy reiterated calls to Ukraine's Western allies to boost assistance, saying "a full-fledged air shield" was needed to protect cities, as well as "strong decisions" from partners. 

A senior Ukrainian security official has told the AFP news agency that a military incursion by Kyiv's forces into Russia's Kursk region aims to undermine Moscow's morale.

"We are on the offensive," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilize the situation in Russia, as they are unable to protect their own border." 

He said the number of Ukrainian troops deployed for the operation was higher than the 1,000 estimated by the Russian army, putting the number at "thousands."

The official also said that, in contrast to the alleged actions of Russian troops in Ukraine, the Ukrainian forces would "strictly observe humanitarian law."

"It is very important that Ukraine does not violate any convention. We strictly observe humanitarian law: We do not execute prisoners, we do not rape women, we do not loot," he said.  

He added that the military action had greatly raised "the morale of the Ukrainian army, state and society," saying: "This operation has shown that we can go on the offensive, move forward."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the operation, which began on Tuesday, for the first time in his nightly address on Saturday, saying that Kyiv was "pushing the war into the aggressor's territory." 

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has voiced his support for stationing long-range US missiles in Germany, saying that the deployment will be an important deterrent in the face of Russian aggression.

"Germany has been within range of Russia's nuclear-capable missiles for years. It is therefore of paramount importance to us that we establish a balance of deterrence," Lindner told the Funke media group in comments published on Sunday.

Berlin and Washington announced in July that long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6 air-defense missiles would be deployed in Germany from 2026, drawing threats of a response in kind from Moscow.

The plan has met with criticism from several parties, including the Social Democrats (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who want the issue to be debated in parliament.

Lindner, whose business-friendly Free Democrats form part of Germany's three-way coalition government, also highlighted the importance of the US for Europe's defense in general no matter who is in the White House.

"I am not resigned to the fact that the trans-Atlantic partnership is weakening," he said. "Even with difficult dialogue partners, we will have to do everything we can to convince the US that engagement in Europe is in its own interests."

Lindner's remarks reflect fears in Europe that the US could reduce its defense support if Donald Trump — who has often complained that Europeans have been freeloading on US defense— wins November presidential elections.

An overnight Russian missile attack near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, has killed a 35-year-old man and his 4-year-old son, Ukraine's emergency service has said.

The bodies of the two were found among rubble by rescue teams after fragments of a missile hit residential buildings in the district of Brovary next to Kyiv, a Telegram posting said.

Three other people, including a 13-year-old child, were seriously injured, the emergency service said.

The attack comes as fears rise in Ukraine that Moscow might retaliate with increased air raids for Kyiv's ongoing incursion into the Russian Kursk region.

Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said 13 people had been injured in Kursk city, two of them seriously, when debris from a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a building during the night.

The acting governor of Kursk oblast in Russia, Alexei Smirnov, said on Saturday night that he had "instructed" the head of the Belovsky district of the region — in southwestern Kursk, near the border to the Sumy region of Ukraine — to "speed up" the implementation of orders to evacuate civilians. 

Russian authorities have been scrambling to relocate people this week amid a surprise Ukrainian incursion into parts of Kursk. Russia's government has also been keen to describe the incursion as an escalation.

Although Ukrainian forces are not thought to control any of the territory, they appear to have established a disruptive presence that stretches quite far into the area, at least based on what analysts can observe via satellite.  

Russian media, including the state-owned TASS news agency, on Saturday quoted the region's emergency situations ministry as saying that "more than 76,000 people" had been "temporarily relocated to safe places." 

Russia also said on Friday that it was sending additional military equipment and personnel to the area over the weekend. 

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and military administration officials said early on Sunday that air defenses were operating in Ukraine's capital overnight. 

"Air defense units operating, air raid alert continues," Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app. 

Witnesses in Kyiv said they heard explosions, though these sounds could have been air defense systems at work rather than hits. 

It was not immediately clear if the attack had caused any damage or injuries. 

The head of Kyiv's military administration, Serhiy Popko, said the capital was still threatened by Russian ballistic missiles. 

Ukraine's air force said Kyiv, the surrounding region and all of eastern Ukraine were subject to air raid alerts.

msh/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, DPA)