{"id":369171,"date":"2025-08-24T06:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369171\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:57:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:57:17","slug":"ukraine-hits-russian-nuclear-site-as-kyiv-marks-independence-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369171\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine hits Russian nuclear site as Kyiv marks independence day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EPAEPA<\/p>\n

Servicemen raise Ukraine’s flag in the capital Kyiv as independence day celebrations begin<\/p>\n

A fire has been put out at a nuclear power plant in Russia’s western Kursk region and air defences have shot down a Ukrainian drone, Russian officials have said.<\/p>\n

The drone detonated when it fell and damaged a transformer, but radiation levels were normal and there were no casualties, a post from the plant’s account on messaging app Telegram said.<\/p>\n

It comes as Ukraine is celebrating its independence day on Sunday, which marks the country’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.<\/p>\n

The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly called on both Russia and Ukraine<\/a> to show maximum restraint around nuclear facilities in the war.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has not commented on the Russian accusation regarding the nuclear site in Kursk, a region where Ukrainian troops briefly invaded in an unexpected military counteroffensive against the Russians last year.<\/p>\n

\"ReutersReuters<\/p>\n

Kursk Nuclear Power Plant<\/p>\n

The UK government has announced that Ukrainian flags will appear above Downing Street on Sunday in recognition of the anniversary. <\/p>\n

UK Defence Secretary John Healey has said Britain is “ramping up” its support for Ukraine “on this special day for the freedom and democracy of the Ukrainian people”.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defence has announced that British military experts will continue to train Ukrainian soldiers until at least the end of 2026, with an extension to Operation Interflex.<\/p>\n

Operation Interflex is the codename given to the UK Armed Forces’ training programme, which has been created to develop and prepare Ukrainian recruits to fight their country’s Russian invaders.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Russia said its forces in eastern Ukraine seized two villages in the Donetsk region.<\/p>\n

Russian forces have been advancing very slowly, and at great cost, in eastern Ukraine and they now control about 20% of Ukraine’s territory.<\/p>\n

A full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched by Russia in 2022.<\/p>\n

There has been intense diplomacy over the war this month, with US President Donald Trump meeting his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August.<\/p>\n

The summit was billed as a vital step towards peace in Ukraine. However, despite both leaders claiming the talks were a success, Trump has since shown growing frustration publicly over the lack of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"ReutersReuters<\/p>\n

Trump has said he is considering either hitting Russia with further economic sanctions or walking away from peace talks. <\/p>\n

“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” Trump said on Friday.<\/p>\n

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called for an unconditional ceasefire and his European allies have also insisted on a halt in fighting.<\/p>\n

Zelensky has also accused Russia of “doing everything it can” to prevent a meeting with Putin to try to end the war.<\/p>\n

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was ready to meet Ukraine’s leader “when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all”, accusing Zelensky of saying “no to everything”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EPA Servicemen raise Ukraine’s flag in the capital Kyiv as independence day celebrations begin A fire has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-369171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115082444509039154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}