Ukraine-Russia war live: Zelensky to meet Starmer today after Kyiv launches drone strike on St Petersburg – UK Times

Russian forces have attacked two civilian search and rescue vessels in Ukrainian waters, causing injuries, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba said yesterday.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, was seized by Russian troops in the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Each side has since accused the other of undertaking military actions to compromise nuclear safety. The plant generates no electricity, ​but needs external power to ensure ‌that nuclear fuel ⁠at the site does not ⁠overheat.

The latest ceasefire was the sixth negotiated since ‌late last ​year to carry out ‌repairs to the ​power lines.

Russia’s anti-aircraft units intercepted and destroyed 339 ⁠Ukrainian drones over a 13-hour period in various Russian regions, including Moscow, claimed its defence ministry.

The ministry, posting on Telegram, listed 13 regions where the interceptions took place, plus areas over the Black Sea, between 7am and 8pm.

Several regions ‌in central Russia were included in the defence ministry list of ‌affected areas, which also ‌extended to Leningrad and Pskov regions in the northwest.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a series of announcements on Telegram outlining anti-aircraft action against drones. An unofficial count showed that 14 had been downed throughout the day.

Russia’s civil aviation authority ‌periodically announced the suspension of flights to different airports. ‌Russian news agencies ⁠said four suspension orders had ⁠been issued at different times of the ‌day for the Black ‌Sea city of Sochi.

The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday that it had captured the settlement of Shevchenko in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Reuters could not ‌immediately ​verify ‌the battlefield ⁠report.

A Turkish-flagged fishing boat was attacked and sank off the northern Black Sea coast, leaving one sailor dead and four others wounded, the Turkish Coast Guard said late on Friday.

The Duru 67 was attacked west of Sevastopol in Crimea earlier in the day, according to a Coast Guard Command statement. The peninsula was illegally seized from Ukraine by Russia and annexed in March 2014. The statement did not provide further details of the attack.

Five injured sailors were rescued by another trawler, the Burak Kaya, but one died on the way back to Turkey.

A Coast Guard vessel carrying a medical team reached the Burak Kaya 115 nautical miles north of Turkey’s Inebolu port and the casualties were placed on board.

After a 15-hour return voyage, the injured were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital Kastamonu, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Provincial health director Fevzi Yavuzyılmaz said they were suffering shrapnel wounds and one had undergone minor surgery aboard the Coast Guard ship.

“Two of our patients have relatively minor injuries and two have slightly more serious injuries,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The waters off Ukraine have seen regular attacks on shipping since Russia launched a war on Ukraine in February 2022.

In November, the Turkish government condemned Ukrainian drone attacks on two oil tankers in the Black Sea as posing “serious risks to navigation, life, property and environmental safety in the region.”

Ukraine’s military said on Saturday it had hit an oil depot and an oil terminal in Russia’s Leningrad region overnight.

Ukrainian president ⁠Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said the ‌military had ‌also ⁠hit ⁠another Russian ‌oil deport ‌in Krasnodar region.

Cycling’s world governing body (UCI) has lifted its blanket ban on Belarus and relaxed some restrictions on Russian junior riders, amending regulations it first adopted in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The UCI said the changes follow updated recommendations from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which lifted all restrictions on Belarusian athletes.

Belarusian national teams and athletes ⁠may enter UCI ‌events, including UCI World Cups and UCI World Championships, with all ‌restrictions on protocol matters, ‌symbols and emblems lifted.

Russian junior riders and their support staff are now ⁠exempt from the requirement to apply for Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) status to enter UCI International Calendar events.

Any reference to Russia is still prohibited on start lists, results sheets and television graphics. Russian national emblems and symbols on jerseys and ‌equipment continue to ⁠be prohibited. Riders holding AIN ⁠status are now authorised to compete together ‌in team events whose format ‌requires collective participation.

A fire ⁠that broke out at ⁠the Antipinsky ​oil ⁠refinery, ⁠Russia’s ​largest independent oil-processing ⁠plant, ‌in Tyumen region ‌has been ‌extinguished, the ⁠Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported ‌on ​Saturday, citing ‌the ⁠emergency ministry.

Residents of St Petersburg were told not to leave their homes after a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack targeted Russia’s second-largest city yesterday morning, underscoring Kyiv’s growing ability to hit deep inside Russia.

The attack came a day after Russian president Vladimir Putin refused an offer to meet his Ukrainian counterpart.

St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov said three people sustained minor injuries in the attack. He advised residents not to go outside and warned of possible disruptions to mobile internet service, while regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said 141 drones were shot down over the surrounding Leningrad region in what he called an “unprecedented attack”.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 376 Ukrainian drones.

“Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg region – to the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base in Kronstadt,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, adding that drones also hit an oil depot in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region.

The renewed attack on St Petersburg is the latest embarrassing blow to Putin’s efforts to cast the conflict as a distant event that doesn’t affect Russian daily life.

A Ukrainian drone strike set ablaze an oil terminal in the city and hit a nearby naval base on Wednesday, hours before the opening of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin’s annual showcase for investment.

The Russian-installed management of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said on Saturday that it had restored the Ferrosplavnaya-1 power line, which supplies electricity to the plant.”All systems and equipment at the ZNPP are operating normally,” the management said via its Telegram channel.

A temporary local ceasefire, brokered by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was declared on Friday to allow repairs to the power line.

A few ‌hours after the incident was reported, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom ‌accused Ukraine of deliberately violating ‌the ceasefire through a drone attack that left at least three people injured.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, was seized by Russian troops in the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Each side has since accused the other of undertaking military actions to compromise nuclear safety. The plant generates no electricity, ​but needs external power to ensure ‌that nuclear fuel ⁠at the site does not ⁠overheat.

The latest ceasefire was the sixth negotiated since ‌late last ​year to carry out ‌repairs to the ​power lines.