‘Kyiv attacks substation’ near Russian-held nuclear plant; Russia pounds Zaporizhzhia city with guided bombs

Russia hit the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with multiple guided bombs on Sunday, wounding at least 16 people, and damaging railways, infrastructure, and residential and commercial buildings, said Ukrainian officials.

The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday its air defence downed 125 Ukrainian drones overnight, while a residential apartment was hit in the western city of Voronezh, according to the local governor.

‘Ukraine attacks substation’ near Russian-held nuclear plant

The management of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had launched a new attack on a nearby electricity substation, destroying a transformer.

The Zaporizhzhia station, Europe’s largest with six reactors, was seized by Russian forces in the early days of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Each side regularly accuses the other of attacking or plotting to attack the plant.

The plant’s management, writing on Telegram, said an artillery strike had hit the transformer at the Raduga substation in the town of Enerhodar in southeastern Ukraine.

It described the incident as “yet another terrorist act aimed at destabilising the situation in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant’s satellite city”.

Also posted was a photograph showing smoke billowing from the top of a building. It said power supplies to Enerhodar had not been interrupted.

The plant’s management accused the Ukrainian military on 20 September of attacking a second substation in Enerhodar.

The following day, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha accused Russia of planning strikes on Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the winter. He provided no detailed explanation.

Power lines to the Zaporizhzia plant have been cut on several occasions, increasing the chance of a blackout that could cause a nuclear accident.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has stationed monitors permanently at the plant and urged both sides to refrain from all attacks on it.

Russia pounds Zaporizhzhia city with guided bombs

Russia hit the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with multiple guided bombs on Sunday, wounding at least 16 people, and damaging railways, infrastructure, and residential and commercial buildings, said Ukrainian officials.

Ivan Fedorov, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said that Russian forces hit three city districts with a total of 13 guided bombs between 5am and 7am. The strikes injured at least 16 people, including two children aged eight and 17 years old, he said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that several residential buildings, the city’s infrastructure and railways were damaged in the strikes.

He posted pictures from the sites of the attacks, showing charred cars, a hole blown through a residential building, and rescuers battling fires. Officials said trains were delayed and diverted while rescuers cleared up the debris.

The highly destructive guided bombs are difficult for Ukrainian air defences to intercept.

The southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, an important logistical and industrial hub located about 50km from the frontline, has been the target of intensified Russian-guided bomb strikes in recent weeks.

Zelensky said that during the past week, Russian forces used nearly 900 guided bombs, more than 300 Shahed drones, and over 40 missiles to strike Ukrainian urban centres, towns, and villages.

“This Russian terror knows no pause, and it can be stopped only by the unity of the world — unity to support Ukraine and unity to put pressure on Russia for the war,” said Zelensky on Telegram.

Russia downs 125 Ukrainian drones, residential apartment hit

The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday its air defence downed 125 Ukrainian drones overnight, while a residential apartment was hit in the western city of Voronezh, according to the local governor.

Separately, the governor of the western region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, in an account of the drone and shelling attacks over the past 24 hours, said one man died in the border town of Shebekino, while eight civilians were injured in the wider region.

As Russia advances in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv has taken the conflict to Russia, with a cross-border attack into Russia’s western Kursk region that began on 6 August and by carrying out increasingly large drone attacks deep into Russian territory.

The defence ministry said the focus of the recent attacks was on the southern Volgograd region, over which 67 drones were shot down. It also said 17 drones were intercepted over each of the Belgorod and Voronezh regions, and 18 were downed over the Rostov region.

Alexander Gusev, the governor of the Voronezh region, said on the Telegram messaging app that a falling drone hit a residential complex, causing a fire.

The blaze had been contained and no one was injured, according to preliminary information, he said.

Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine is being formalised, says Kremlin

The Kremlin said on Sunday that amendments to Russia’s nuclear doctrine had been prepared and were about to be formalised, meaning the relevant documents setting out the circumstances in which nuclear arms can be used by Moscow will be updated.

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that under proposed changes to the doctrine Russia could use nuclear arms if it was struck with conventional missiles and would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack.

The changes were widely seen as an attempt by Putin to draw a “red line” for the US and its allies by signalling that Moscow would consider responding with nuclear weapons if they allowed Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with long-range Western missiles.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin on Sunday: “The amendments have been prepared, and will now be formalised.”

Russia ‘thwarts Ukraine’s attempts to enter Kursk region’

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had repelled six new Ukrainian attempts to enter its western Kursk region and had also taken control of the settlement of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

The ministry said in a post on Telegram that its forces, with the support of aircraft and artillery rounds, repelled attempts to enter the region near the village of Novy Put, some 79km west of Sudzha, a strategic crossing point for Russian natural gas exports to Europe via Ukraine.

Ukraine launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War 2 on 6 August, bursting through the border into the Kursk region, supported by swarms of drones and heavy weaponry, including Western-made arms.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this month that his forces controlled 100 settlements in the Kursk region over an area of more than 1,300 square km. Russian sources disputed this figure and Russia says it has since taken back some villages in a counter-attack.

The defence ministry said 50 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and injured in the latest attempted Kursk incursion, without specifying the exact number of deaths. It said a tank and four combat armoured vehicles, as well as a car were destroyed.

North Korea says US military aid to Ukraine is ‘incredible mistake’

North Korea, which has been accused of illegally supplying weapons to Russia, said on Sunday that US military aid worth $8-billion to Ukraine was “an incredible mistake” and playing with fire against nuclear superpower Russia.

US President Joe Biden announced the new aid as Zelensky visited Washington to help Kyiv defend itself, including longer-range weapons that will upgrade its ability to strike Russia from safer distances.

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Washington was escalating the Ukraine conflict and driving all of Europe to the brink of a nuclear war.

“The United States and the West should not dismiss or underestimate Russia’s serious warning,” said Kim in a statement published by state news agency KCNA.

“Are the United States and the West really able to handle the consequences as they recklessly play with fire against Russia, which is a nuclear superpower?” she said.

North Korea and Russia have dramatically upgraded their ties in the past year, with their leaders meeting twice and agreeing on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” that includes a mutual defence pledge.

North Korea has shipped at least 16,500 containers of weapons to Russia since September last year and Russia has fired missiles from those shipments against Ukraine, the US has said.

Both North Korea and Russia deny any illegal arms trade. DM