Ukraine’s capital bans Independence Day festivities, fearing Russian attack

By Pavel Polityuk

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine’s capital Kyiv banned public celebrations this week commemorating independence from Soviet rule, citing a heightened threat of attack as a U.S. official warned of Russian plans to strike Ukrainian infrastructure in the coming days.

Near frontlines in the south of the country, Ukraine said Russia fired rockets into several towns north and west of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, captured by Russian forces shortly after they invaded Ukraine in February.

Artillery and rocket fire near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex, on the south bank of the Dnipro River, has led to calls for the area to be demilitarised. Ukrainians living near the plant voiced fears shells could hit one of the plant’s six reactors, with potentially disastrous consequences.

“Of course, we are worried. … It’s like sitting on a powder keg,” said Alexander Lifirenko, a resident of the nearby town of Enerhodar, now under control of pro-Moscow forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned that Moscow could try “something particularly ugly” in the run-up to Wednesday’s 31st independence anniversary, which also marks half a year since Russia invaded.

Warning of potential harm to civilians, a U.S. official told Reuters that Russia “is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days.”

The official said the statement was based on downgraded U.S. intelligence.

Fearing renewed rocket attacks, authorities in Kyiv moved to ban public events related to the independence anniversary from Monday until Thursday. The capital is far from the front lines and has only rarely been hit by Russian missiles since Ukraine repelled a ground offensive to seize the capital in March.

Other jurisdictions also restricted public gatherings. In Kharkiv, a northeastern city that has come under frequent and deadly longer-range artillery and rocket fire, Mayor Ihor Terekhov announced an extension to an overnight curfew to run from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. effective from Tuesday to Thursday.

In the port of Mykolaiv near Russian-held territory to the south, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said authorities planned a precautionary order for residents to work from home on Tuesday and Wednesday and urged people not to gather in large groups.

Bridge attacked

Fears of intensified attacks rose after Russia’s Federal Security Service on Monday accused Ukrainian agents of killing Darya Dugina, daughter of a Russian ultra-nationalist ideologue, in a car bomb attack near Moscow that President Vladimir Putin called “evil”. Ukraine denies involvement.

The two sides have traded blame over frequent shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, where Kyiv accuses Moscow of basing troops and storing military hardware. Russia denies this and accuses Ukraine of targeting Zaporizhzhia with drones.

Overnight, Russian forces fired rockets into the nearby towns of Nikopol, Krivyi Rih and Synelnykovskyi, the area’s regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, wrote on Telegram.

Moscow requested a U.N. Security Council meeting be held on Tuesday to discuss the Zaporizhzhia plant, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported, citing Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Dmitry Polyanskiy.

To the south, renewed fighting and explosions were reported in Russian-occupied Kherson and in the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

In Kherson, the sole bridge across the strategic Dnipro River was hit by high-precision HIMARS rockets supplied to Ukraine by the United States, injuring 15 people, a source in occupied Kherson’s emergency services told Russia’s Interfax news agency.

The bridge, a key crossing for Russian military transport in the region, has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian forces as they stage a counter-offensive to retake the Kherson region. A Kyiv interior ministry adviser said smoke was seen rising from the bridge.

Russian media reported explosions in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. The city’s Russian-appointed governor said an anti-air defence system had been triggered nearby. Crimea has been rocked by a series of explosions in recent weeks, including a blast at a munitions depot that Moscow blamed on saboteurs.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the battlefield reports of either side.

Civilian toll

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

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing its monitoring mission in Ukraine, said on Monday 5,587 civilians had been killed and 7,890 wounded between Feb. 24 and Aug. 21, mainly from artillery, rocket and missile attacks.

UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, said at least 972 children have been killed or injured over six months of war.

“The use of explosive weapons has caused most of the child casualties. These weapons do not discriminate between civilian and combatant, especially when used in populated areas as has been the case in Ukraine,” the agency’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a statement.

Separately, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi – Kyiv’s army chief – provided what appeared to be the first public Ukrainian military death toll, saying nearly 9,000 soldiers had died in action.

Russia has not said how many of its soldiers have been killed. Ukraine’s General Staff have estimated the Russian military death toll at 45,400.

Reuters has been unable to verify military losses.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Natalia Zinets; Writing by Himani Sarkar, Mark Heinrich, Nick Macfie and Rami Ayyub; Editing by Stephen Coates, Hugh Lawson, Catherine Evans and Cynthia Osterman)