Ukraine Independence Day: beware of "ugly" attacks, says Zelensky
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Kyiv: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky warned his people on Saturday of more attacks from the Russian side as Ukrainian Independence Day is around. His warning came when fresh blasts occurred in Crimea, and a missile fell near a nuclear power plant injuring 12 civilians, Reuters reported.
In a video message, Zelensky told his people not to allow Russia to spread despondency and fear among them while the 31s anniversary of Ukraine being free from the Soviet Union on August 24.
He said that they must all be aware of Russia trying to do something particularly ugly and vicious. August 24 marks six months after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Saturday, a Russian missile hit a residential area in a southern Ukrainian town not far from a nuclear power plant. The incident injured 12 civilians and triggered fear of a nuclear accident amid the war. Also, there was shelling near the Zaporizhzhia station, Europe's largest such facility.
Zelensky further mentioned a recent series of explosions in Crimea, the province Russia annexed in a 2014 incursion. But Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the attack, though there are doubts that some of the blasts were out of new equipment used by Ukrainian forces.
Zelensky said that they could literally feel Crimea in the air this year. Ukraine's occupation there is temporary, and its forces are about to come back, he said.
The Russian-appointed governor in Crimea said that a drone attack struck a building not near the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet early on Saturday. But the attack was a failure, governor Mikhail Razvozhayev claimed.
Razvozhayev said later the region's anti-aircraft system had again been in operation and asked residents to stop filming and disseminating pictures of how it was working.
He later said that anti-aircraft systems in the region had been engaged and urged civilians to stop filming and spreading pictures of how the system worked.