UKRAINE – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would continue to fight for its freedom ‘while its calls for peace are not heard’, in a defiant address to the nation on its Independence Day.
“We need a just peace, a peace where our future will be decided only by us,” he said, adding that Ukraine is ‘not a victim, it is a fighter’. He continued: “Ukraine has not yet won, but it has certainly not lost.”
Zelenskyy’s remarks came after Moscow said Ukraine had attacked Russian power and energy facilities overnight, blaming drone attacks for a fire at a nuclear power plant in its western Kursk region.
The Ukraine Government’s Centre for Countering Disinformation said it had been reported that the shooting down of a drone allegedly caused the fire.
The centre blamed Russia for ‘spreading manipulations’ and said Russia accusing Ukraine of ‘allegedly carrying out targeted strikes’ on the power plant ‘are typical methods’ of Russian propaganda.
There were no injuries and the fire was quickly extinguished, the plant’s press service said on messaging app Telegram. It said the attack had damaged a transformer, but radiation levels were within the normal range.
The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was aware of reports regarding the fire, but could not independently confirm them. Its director general said ‘every nuclear facility must be protected at all times’.
The IAEA has repeatedly called on both Russia and Ukraine to show maximum restraint around nuclear facilities in the war. Also on Sunday, Russia and Ukraine both confirmed a prisoner swap had taken place, with 146 soldiers on each side being exchanged.
Russia’s Defence Ministry also said eight people from Russia’s Kursk region, which was partially occupied by Ukraine for several months, had been handed over and would return home.
Zelenskyy said those returned by Russia included soldiers, border guards and civilians, most of whom have been in captivity since 2022.
He also said Journalist Dmytro Khilyuk, who was ‘kidnapped in the Kyiv Region’ at the start of the war, was coming home. Independence Day celebrations were held in Kyiv, as the country marked its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
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