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A fire near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been extinguished after Ukrainian shelling hit one of its auxiliary facilities, the Russian-installed administration of the site said on Saturday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its team at the plant heard explosions and saw smoke coming from a location about 1,200 metres from the perimeter.
The plant’s administration said on Telegram that one civilian was killed, but no plant staff or emergency workers were injured.
The Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, is currently shut down but still needs power to keep its fuel cool. The Russia-installed management said radiation levels remained normal and that the situation was under control.
Meanwhile, Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv early on Sunday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said as witnesses heard a loud blast shaking the city soon after midnight.
A Ukrainian drone attack also caused fire at an oil depot in the Russian city of Sochi, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.
Several homes also caught fire and a woman sustained a leg injury in Voronezh, the governor said.
Ukraine's drone attack sparks fire at oil depot in Russia's Sochi, governor says
More than 120 firefighters were trying to extinguish a fire at an oil depot in the Russian city of Sochi that was sparked by an Ukrainian drone attack, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said early on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app.
Rosaviatsia, Russia's civil aviation authority, said on Telegram that flights were halted at the city's airport to ensure air safety.
Stuti Mishra3 August 2025 07:05
Zelensky praised for restoring independence of Ukraine's anti-graft investigators amid first major protests since Russian invasion
Ukraine's European allies praised Volodymyr Zelensky's move to restore independence of Ukraine's anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, after having voiced concerns about the original stripping of the agencies' status.
Top European officials had told Mr Zelensky that Ukraine was jeopardising its bid for European Union membership by curbing the powers of its anti-graft authorities.
"It is important that anti-corruption institutions operate independently, and the law adopted on Thursday guarantees them every opportunity for a real fight against corruption," Mr Zelensky wrote on Saturday after meeting the heads of the agencies, who briefed him on the latest investigation.
Stuti Mishra3 August 2025 06:30
Ukraine uncovers major corruption scheme in military drone procurement
Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies said on Saturday they had uncovered a major graft scheme that procured military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices, two days after the agencies' independence was restored following major protests.
The independence of Ukraine's anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, NABU and SAPO, was reinstated by parliament on Thursday after a move to take it away resulted in the country's biggest demonstrations since Russia's invasion in 2022.
In a statement published by both agencies on social media, NABU and SAPO said they had caught a sitting lawmaker, two local officials and an unspecified number of national guard personnel taking bribes. None of them were identified in the statement.
"The essence of the scheme was to conclude state contracts with supplier companies at deliberately inflated prices," it said, adding that the offenders had received kickbacks of up to 30 per cent of a contract's cost. Four people had been arrested.
"There can only be zero tolerance for corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption and, as a result, a just sentence," president Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Mr Zelensky, who has far-reaching wartime presidential powers and still enjoys broad approval among Ukrainians, was forced into a rare political about-face when his attempt to bring NABU and SAPO under the control of his prosecutor-general sparked the first nationwide protests of the war.
He subsequently said that he had heard the people's anger, and submitted a bill restoring the agencies' former independence, which was voted through by parliament on Thursday.
Stuti Mishra3 August 2025 05:55
Russia says it destroyed about 15 Ukrainian drones
Russian air defence units destroyed about 15 Ukrainian drones over Voronezh, the governor, Alexander Gusev, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The overnight attack resulted in several homes and utility buildings catching fire from falling drone debris and a woman was injured, the governor of the southern Russian region said on Sunday.
"The threat of further drone attacks remains," Mr Gusev said in the post early on Sunday.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strike in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
Kyiv says that its attacks inside Russia are aimed at destroying infrastructure key to Moscow's war efforts and are in response to Russia's relentless strikes on Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry said that its units destroyed 41 drones just before midnight on Saturday over Russian regions bordering Ukraine and over the waters of the Black Sea.
Stuti Mishra3 August 2025 05:22
Woman injured in Russia in Ukrainian attack
A Ukrainian drone strike reportedly injured a woman and sparked multiple fires in Russia’s southern Voronezh region, the local governor said today.
Meanwhile, Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian capital’s military administration.
Stuti Mishra3 August 2025 04:30
Russia launches new missile strike on Kyiv
Russia fired a missile at Kyiv early today, the city’s military administration said on Telegram.
Reuters witnesses described a loud explosion that shook the capital shortly after midnight.
The strike comes just days after Russia carried out its deadliest aerial assault on Kyiv this year, which left at least 31 people dead, including five children, and wounded more than 150.
Maroosha Muzaffar3 August 2025 04:00
Putin not ready to seriously negotiate, says Lammy
Vladimir Putin is not ready for serious negotiations on peace in Ukraine, UK foreign secretary David Lammy has said in an interview with The Guardian.
"My sober assessment is that Putin is not ready to seriously negotiate,” Mr Lammy told the outlet.
“He still has maximalist and imperialist ambitions. The battle Ukraine has fought, with UK, European and American support, is immense.”
The foreign secretary also spoke of his admiration of the Ukrainian people.
"Even if the world left them behind, they’d still be waging a guerrilla war, such is their belief in their country. It’s deeply inspiring,” he said.
Alex Croft3 August 2025 03:00
Fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant brought under control, Russian authorities say
A fire that broke out near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Ukrainian shelling has been brought under control, the Russian-installed administration of the Russia-held plant in Ukraine said on Saturday.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Both sides have accused each other of firing or taking other actions that could trigger a nuclear accident.
The plant's administration said on Telegram that a civilian had been killed in the shelling, but that no plant employees or members of the emergency services had been injured.
The station, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, is not operating but still requires power to keep its nuclear fuel cool.
The plant's Russia-installed management said radiation levels remained within normal levels and the situation was under control.
Alex Croft3 August 2025 02:01
Russia says its forces captured Oleksandro-Kalynove in eastern Ukraine
Russia's defence ministry said Russian forces had captured the village of Oleksandro-Kalynove in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region on Saturday
The battlefield report was not immediately verified.
Alex Croft3 August 2025 01:00
Atomic agency reports hearing explosions near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday that its team at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) heard explosions and saw smoke coming from a nearby location.
The nuclear plant said one of its auxiliary facilities was attacked today, IAEA said in a statement.
"The auxiliary facility is located 1,200 metres from the ZNPP's site perimeter and the IAEA team could still see smoke from that direction in the afternoon," the nuclear watchdog said.
Alex Croft2 August 2025 23:59
