Russian drone raid on western Khmelnytskyi targeted area's nuclear power station: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
Oct 26, 2023
Kyiv [Ukraine], October 26 : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that a Russian drone raid on the western Khmelnytskyi region probably targeted the area's nuclear power station, as per Al Jazeera.
The attack shattered windows at the plant and injured 20 people. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, said blasts from the drone attack did not affect the plant's operations or its connection to the grid.
Zelenskyy had earlier warned that Ukraine would strike back if Moscow embarked on an air campaign aimed at crippling the national power grid during winter.
Last year, millions of Ukrainians faced sweeping power cuts in sub-zero temperatures after Russia attacked power facilities.
"We're preparing for the terrorists to strike energy infrastructure. This year we will not only defend ourselves, but we will also respond," Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app, as per Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, the governor of Ukraine's southern Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said a man was killed after a Russian bomb fell on a residential area of the city of Beryslav early on Wednesday morning. Prokudin said that Russian forces had carried out 35 aerial attacks on the Kherson region in the previous 24 hours.
Russia's military said its air defence forces shot down two long-range US-made ATACM missiles fired by Ukraine at Russian targets. It did not provide further details.
Deputy chair of Russia's Security Council and former president Dmitry Medvedev said the armed forces had recruited 385,000 people so far this year. The military has offered huge salaries and welfare programmes to convince people to sign up. "More than 1,600 people are signing a contract with the armed forces every day," Medvedev said in a video on social media, as per Al Jazeera.
