Ukraine bans Independence Day rallies for fear of Russian rocket strikes

By Pavel Polityuk

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s capital Kyiv banned public celebrations this week to commemorate independence from Russian-dominated Soviet rule, citing a heightened risk of Russian assault in a struggle that the United Nations mentioned on Monday has killed greater than 5,500 civilians.

Close to frontlines within the south of the nation, Ukraine mentioned Russia fired rockets into a number of southern Ukrainian cities north and west of Europe’s largest nuclear energy plant, captured by Russian forces shortly after they invaded Ukraine in February.

Artillery and rocket fireplace within the area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor advanced, on the Russian-occupied south financial institution of the Dnipro River, has stirred fears of a nuclear catastrophe and led to requires the encompassing space to be demilitarised.

Russia launched what it calls a “particular navy operation” on Feb. 24 to demilitarise its smaller neighbour and shield Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and its Western backers accuse Moscow of waging an imperial-style struggle of conquest.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned on the weekend of the danger of extra extreme assaults forward of Ukraine’s thirty first anniversary on Wednesday of independence from Russian-dominated Soviet rule.

Native authorities in Kyiv have banned massive public occasions, rallies and different gatherings associated to the anniversary from Monday till Thursday as a consequence of the potential for rocket assaults, in line with a doc printed by the Kyiv navy administration and signed by its head Mykola Zhyrnov.

Kyiv is way from entrance strains and has solely not often been hit by Russian missiles since Ukrainian defenders repelled a Russian floor offensive to grab the capital in March.

In Kharkiv, a northeastern metropolis that has come underneath frequent and lethal longer-range artillery and rocket fireplace, Mayor Ihor Terekhov introduced an extension to an in a single day curfew to run from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. efficient from Tuesday to Thursday.

Within the port of Mykolaiv close to Russian-held territory to the south, regional governor Vitaliy Kim mentioned authorities deliberate a precautionary order for residents to make money working from home on Tuesday and Wednesday and urged folks to not collect in massive teams.

Fears of intensified assaults had been more likely to rise after Russia’s Federal Safety Service (FSB) accused Ukrainian secret companies on Monday of killing Darya Dugina, daughter of a Russian ultra-nationalist ideologue, in a suspected automotive bombing on Saturday, Russian information companies reported. Ukraine has denied being concerned.

Zelenskiy, in a weekend video handle, mentioned Moscow may strive “one thing notably ugly” within the run-up to Wednesday, which additionally marks half a yr since Russia invaded.

The Workplace of the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, citing its monitoring mission in Ukraine, mentioned on Monday 5,587 civilians had been killed and seven,890 injured as of Aug. 21, primarily from artillery, rocket and missile assaults.

Individually on Monday, Common Valeriy Zaluzhnyi – Kyiv’s military chief – offered what seemed to be the primary public Ukrainian navy loss of life toll, saying almost 9,000 troopers had died in motion.

Russia has not mentioned what number of of its troopers have been killed. Ukraine’s Common Workers have estimated the Russian navy loss of life toll at 45,400.

Reuters has been unable to confirm the navy losses by both facet.

NUCLEAR RISK

Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for repeated incidents of shelling in and across the premises of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor advanced, on the Russian-occupied south financial institution of the Dnipro River, in latest weeks.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of basing troops and storing navy {hardware} on the grounds of the facility station and utilizing it as a protect from which to bombard Kyiv government-controlled territory to the west and north. Russia denies this and accuses Ukraine of focusing on the plant with shells and drones.

In a single day on Monday, Russian forces fired rockets into Nikopol, simply throughout the Dnipro from the plant on its south financial institution, in addition to the Krivyi Rih and Synelnykovskyi districts additional out to the northwest and northeast respectively, regional Governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.

In a telephone name on Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed latest discussions on enabling a mission by the U.N. nuclear watchdog company to Zaporizhzhia.

UKRAINE HITS KEY RUSSIAN-HELD BRIDGE AGAIN

The battle, Europe’s largest since World Struggle Two, has destroyed cities and cities, killed hundreds of individuals, pressured hundreds of thousands to flee overseas and deepened a risky geopolitical stand-off between Russia and the West.

Since Russian forces retreated in disarray from Kyiv early within the struggle, they’ve targeting seizing the remainder of the japanese Donbas area partially held by separatist proxies since 2014, and holding on to captured swathes of the south.

Within the newest signal of a deliberate Ukrainian counter-offensive to retake the Russian-occupied Kherson area within the south, smoke was rising from the only real bridge throughout the Dnipro in Kherson metropolis, a Kyiv inside ministry adviser mentioned.

A supply in occupied Kherson’s emergency companies instructed Russia’s Interfax information company that the Antonivskyi bridge was hit by high-precision HIMARS rockets equipped to Ukraine by the USA, and that 15 folks had been injured.

The bridge, a key technique of Russian navy transport within the area, has been repeatedly focused by Ukrainian forces.

In japanese Donetsk province, Russian artillery and a number of rocket launchers battered Soledar, Zaytseve and Bilohorivka close to town of Bakhmut, and no less than two civilians had been killed, Ukrainian authorities mentioned. Russia denies focusing on civilians.

Reuters was not in a position to independently confirm the battlefield stories of both facet.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Natalia Zinets; Writing by Himani Sarkar and Mark Heinrich; Enhancing by Stephen Coates and Hugh Lawson)