Ukraine announces shooting down 16 drones, and Russia accuses it of targeting a nuclear plant

 Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 16 drones during a Russian attack on the southeast of the country last night, while the Russian authorities accused Kyiv of targeting a nuclear plant in the Kursk region.

Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that its forces had repelled Russian attempts to advance on the Kobyansk axes in Kharkiv Province, and Liman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Marinka in Donetsk Province.

And the Ukrainian Staff revealed in a statement that the Russian forces tried to prevent the progress of the Ukrainian forces in Zaporizhia and Kherson cantons through air raids in several areas of the two cantons.

And the governor of the Russian province of Voronezh, Alexander Gusev, stated that the air defenses shot down 3 Ukrainian drones in the province, Thursday evening. The official explained that the marches were detected and destroyed a few kilometers from the city in southwestern Russia.

While the Russian Redovka website reported that residents in the canton heard an explosion, the governor confirmed that dropping the marches did not result in any damage or injuries.

In the same context, the Russian emergency services reported that a Ukrainian march had fallen in the Kurchatov region, a few kilometers from the nuclear power plant in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine. The governor of the border province indicated that the damage of the attack was limited to a residential building, whose exterior windows were shown to be shattered.

Commenting on the attack, the Kremlin said that what it called the enemy does not stop trying to launch attacks and that the Russian defenses are working effectively.

Russian Foreign Ministry also commented on the attack by saying that NATO governments are sponsoring the nuclear terrorism practiced by Kyiv.

Russian Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that the situation at the Kursk nuclear plant is under control.

Regarding the supply of US cluster munitions to Kyiv, the Russian embassy in Washington said that the Ukrainian forces will not abide by any restrictions when using cluster bombs and when choosing targets, due to what it called the state of despair in Kyiv due to the heavy losses and lack of success on the front.

Russian embassy added that it would not expect the number of civilian casualties when what it called "Kyiv criminals" begin to use US cluster munitions.

Commenting on the new Western supplies to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that these supplies will not change anything on the battlefield and that the Western missiles that Kyiv receives did not fundamentally change the course of the fighting on the battlefield in Ukraine.

He stressed that Ukraine's membership in NATO poses a threat to Russia's national security, makes the entire world weaker, and creates additional tension in the international arena.

About security guarantees for Ukraine; Putin said that every country in the world has the right to guarantee its security, stressing that he does not oppose Kyiv obtaining security guarantees, provided that this does not affect Russia's security.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also said that Western countries have sought to weaken Russia's security by encouraging its dependence on foreign technologies.

Source: Agencies