Russia launched a "salvo" of attacks on the Zaporozhye region in southern Ukraine
Russia launched a "salvo" of attacks on the Zaporozhye region, in the south of Ukraine, in the last 24 hours, the General Staff of the Ukrainian army reported on Monday morning, according to DPA, Agerpres reports. Also, the port city of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, was targeted by airstrikes on the night of Sunday into Monday. Several explosions were heard in Odesa, Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported, without giving further details.
Odessa was attacked with Kalibr cruise missiles and kamikaze drones against the background of a storm in the Black Sea, Ukrainian portal Liga reports. Russia launched a massive missile attack last night on the cities of Dnipro, Kiev, Kharkiv, Krivoi Rog, Kropivnitsky, Poltava and Odesa, according to Kiev media. Out of the 15 Russian air targets, the Ukrainian anti-aircraft managed to shoot down 13, including two Kalibr missiles and seven Iranian-made Shahed drones, reports the local Kanal 24 television station.
Russia launched its attacks mainly from the southern direction: three Kalibr cruise missiles were launched from a submarine in the Black Sea, and eight Shahed-136/131 drones from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, according to the quoted TV station .
In a TV intervention, the spokeswoman of the "Sud" operational command, Natalia Gumeniuk, stated that the activity of the anti-aircraft defense systems was hampered by the storm in the Black Sea that wreaked havoc during the past night.
In a separate attack, Russian forces launched four attack drones over northern Ukraine, but all were shot down, local media reported.
Since Sunday, Russian forces have carried out attacks with at least six S-300 long-range missiles, 33 airstrikes and 45 strikes from multiple rocket launchers (MRLs), according to the military high command in Kiev.
"As a result of the Russian terrorist attacks, civilians were injured, and residential, commercial and administrative buildings, as well as private cars were damaged," says the latest report on the situation in the country.
The DPA states that it has not been able to independently verify all of this information.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian troops tried to stop the advance of Ukrainian units and to recover lost positions, and at least 30 settlements were bombarded by Russian artillery.
The Zaporozhye region is home to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which Russian forces have occupied since the first days of the invasion launched in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Sunday evening for more efforts to protect the plant.
"Unfortunately, the world's attention to the existing Russian threat at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is still insufficient," he said, warning that the occupation forces had decided to detonate the plant. "We presented to our allies the information we have, information from our secret services, about the possibility of detonating the mines that were placed at the Zaporozhye plant by Russia," Zelenskiy said after speaking by phone with the presidents of the US and Poland and with the Canadian Prime Minister. The leader from Kiev said in this context that the detonation would have already been approved by Moscow, according to EFE.
The Ukrainian president added that "we must take specific measures, together at the international level, to avoid any kind of accident involving radiation leaks." Ukraine last week accused Russia of undermining the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, and preparing an attack there to cause a radiation leak. The purpose of this action, according to Kiev, would be to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
