Russian forces carried out more sporadic missile strikes Saturday in Ukraine, targeting facilities that provide power to the country and its residential areas.
Kyiv regional Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine’s capital region, but no causalities were reported, and the location was not disclosed.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, urged Kyiv-area residents and people in three neighboring regions to conserve energy during the evening hours of peak demand.
The attack on the power transmission facility came hours after Ukrainian officials said Russia fired artillery into residential areas of Nikopol, southeast of Zaporizhzhia. Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of the Nikopol district military administration, said five people were wounded in the Saturday morning attack on the city. He said the attacks were focused on “maximum damage to civilians.”
Russians killed at firing range
At least 11 Russian troops were killed and 15 more were wounded Saturday when two Russian volunteer soldiers opened fire at a military firing range in the southwest Belgorod region near Ukraine, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The Defense Ministry said the pair of volunteers were from a former Soviet nation and were killed by return fire, describing the incident as a terrorist attack.
"During a firearms training session with individuals who voluntarily expressed a desire to participate in the special military operation (against Ukraine), the terrorists opened fire with small arms on the personnel of the unit," RIA cited a defense ministry statement as saying.
Some Russian independent media outlets were reporting higher casualties.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in an interview that the attackers were from Tajikistan and had opened fire after an argument over religion, Reuters reported.
Tajikistan is a predominantly Muslim nation in Central Asia. About half of Russians follow various branches of Christianity. The Russian ministry had said the attackers were from a nation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, which includes Tajikistan.
Reuters was not immediately able to confirm Arestovych’s comments or independently verify the casualty numbers or other details of the incident.
More missile strikes
Dozens of people in Ukraine have been killed and scores more wounded in the last week as Russian forces bombarded Ukrainian cities with missile strikes, hitting power stations, residential buildings, roads and recreational areas.
Russia’s latest military campaign appeared to be in retaliation for a truck bomb that exploded a week ago, severely damaging the only bridge that links Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Ukraine’s military has been concentrating its efforts on regaining territory in the south and east. It announced Saturday that its forces had repelled Russian attacks near 11 settlements.
The General Staff reported that Ukrainian soldiers repelled attempted Russian advances near the settlements of Novosadove, Yakovlivka, Berestove, Bakhmut, Bakhmutske, Opytne, Krasnohorivka, Nevelske, Pervomaiske, Mariinka, and Pobieda in the Donbas region.
Ukrainian officials said its military also hit five Russian command points along with seven concentrations of Russian troops and shot down six Russian drones.
More US assistance
The escalation in the fighting comes as the United States announced another round of military assistance for Ukraine. The White House pledged $725 million in a security package to help Kyiv.
U.S. officials said the aid package does not include significant new capabilities or counterair defenses. Instead, it focuses on resupplying Ukraine with ammunition and weapons that Kyiv has been successfully using in its counteroffensive against Russia.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that although Russia has deployed more troops called up as part of a conscription program announced last month, the soldiers are likely poorly equipped.
Russian President Vladimir Putin defended recent moves to escalate the war by sending more troops to Ukraine.
Putin said Friday there was no need for massive new strikes on Ukraine and that Russia was not looking to destroy the country. At the same time, the Russian leader maintained he had "no regrets" about the war in Ukraine and the recent mobilization of 222,000 Russians reservists to fight in the conflict.
Putin said Russia should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks. The Russian Defense Ministry set a goal last month of mobilizing 300,000 reservists, sparking opposition in Russia and leading to tens of thousands of men leaving the country.
Meanwhile, power has again been restored at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility. Ukrainian engineers continue to operate the plant under the watch of Russian soldiers.
Moscow recently said it was nationalizing the facility, which is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and is in one of four Ukrainian provinces that Putin declared were annexed to Russia this month.
The site has come under intense rocket attacks numerous times since the start of the war setting off fears of a potential nuclear disaster. In a statement late Friday Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said employees at the nuclear plant were now facing “unacceptable pressure” to sign employment contracts with the Russian nuclear energy company, Rosatom.
Information from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press was used in this report.
