Ukraine updates: Two arsenals destroyed in Russia, Kyiv says

Russian forces struck a multi-storey apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, local authorities said on Saturday.

The City’s Mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said that 12 people had been injured and wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had deployed a guided bomb.

Terekhov said that rescue operations were underway.

Earlier, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said that there had been two strikes on the city.

Kharkiv, which is Ukraine's second largest city, is situated around 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the border with Russia and has been the target of regular Russian attacks.

Russia will not participate in a Ukraine-proposed follow-up to the Swiss-organized "peace summit" held in June, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday, adding that the process was a "fraud."

"This process itself has nothing to do with a settlement," Zakharova wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging platform. "It is another manifestation of fraud by the Anglo-Saxons and their Ukrainian puppets."

Putin said in June that Russia would agree to peace talks if Ukraine gives up four of its regions that Moscow claims as its own.

Russia was not invited to the Swiss summit in June. Still, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is traveling to the United States to present what he calls Ukraine's "victory plan" to US President Joe Biden, has said he hopes to organize a follow-up meeting by the end of the year with Russia attending.

Before leaving for New York for the UN Nations General Assembly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainian media on Saturday that he plans to present what he calls his "victory plan" first to US President Joe Biden and then to the rest of the world. 

"The victory plan provides for quick and concrete steps by our strategic partners — in the period from today until the end of December," Zelenskyy said, without elaborating.

Ukraine's partners are key to the plan, he said, adding that the roadmap should build a bridge to a second peace summit, which should include Russia.

"This will be the start and foundation for talking in any format with Russia. In any format, with any of its representatives, because there will be a plan and something to show," Zelenskyy said.

For his part, the Ukrainian president has once again made it clear that he believes Moscow is not interested in peace talks and wants to continue the war. Russia was not invited to the first Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland in June. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Russia appears to be planning attacks on Ukrainian nuclear facilities before winter and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Ukraine's allies to establish permanent monitoring missions at the country's nuclear facilities.

"In particular, it concerns open distribution devices at nuclear power plants and transmission substations, critical for the safe operation of nuclear energy. Damage to those facilities creates a high risk of a nuclear incident with global consequences," Sybiha wrote on X.

He also said Ukraine was grateful to the IAEA for its decision to extend missions to several Ukrainian nuclear facilities.

"We urge the Agency, partner nations and other organizations to expedite realization of agreements, as well as to establish a permanent enhanced missions' presence at all relevant facilities," the minister added.

Ukraine's electricity shortfall could reach 6 gigawatts this winter, about a third of expected peak demand, the International Energy Agency said in a report this week.

Ukraine's General Staff said Saturday it had hit two military storage facilities inside Russia, in the western Tver and southern Krasnodar regions. 

"Ukrainian defense forces hit two military arsenals of the Russian armed forces," the military said in a statement, saying it had hit a facility near the southern city of Tikhoretsk in the Krasnodar region and one near the village of Oktyabrsky in the Tver region, adding: "The tasks were successfully carried out." 

According to the General Staff, at the time of the attack, the Tikhoretsk arsenal housed at least 2,000 tons of ammunition, including some from North Korea.

Russia has not confirmed the destruction of the arsenals. However, local authorities confirmed a fire caused by the drone strike in the Krasnodar region, which prompted the evacuation of more than 1,000 people.

Authorities in the western Tver region also announced a nighttime drone attack near the town of Toropets and temporarily closed the M-9 highway. On Wednesday, Toropets was partially evacuated after its ammunition depot was hit by a Ukrainian drone strike and a large fire broke out.

The Ukrainian military will get more money to fight Russian aggression under a new law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Local media reported that the new law will increase military spending by 500 billion hryvnias (about €11 billion or $12 billion). 

The increase will be financed by loans, taxes and an increase in duties on tobacco and fuel. 

The Ukrainian parliament passed a supplementary budget on Wednesday in response to the ongoing war. This will increase budget spending by about 13% to the equivalent of over $90.5 billion, a record for Ukraine. 

Russia's Defense Ministry said it had struck Ukrainian energy facilities overnight with high-precision weapons and drones.

According to the ministry, energy facilities that ensure the operation of enterprises of Ukraine's military-industrial complex and places of deployment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were hit.

Several regions in Ukraine reported Russian airstrikes overnight. Ukrainian air defenses said five missiles and 11 drones were intercepted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he has not yet got permission from the US or UK to use Western-supplied long-range missiles inside Russia.

"Neither America nor the United Kingdom gave us permission to use these weapons on the territory of Russia, on any targets at any distance. We did not use long-range weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation," he told reporters late on Friday, adding that he thought they feared an "escalation" of hostilities.

However, Ukraine's allies stepped up military assistance in early September, according to Zelenskyy. Aid "accelerated in September... and we can feel the difference," he said.

The Ukrainian leader also said that a peace plan for Ukraine that was proposed by China and Brazil in the spring of this year was too vague.

"I don't think it was a concrete plan. I don't see any specific action or stages in it, just generalized procedures. Generalizations always hide something," he told reporters.

At least three people, including a 12-year-old boy, have been killed in renewed Russian missile attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, local authorities said. 

Another three people were injured, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak, wrote on Telegram.

Lysak also posted several pictures of homes in ruins. The search for survivors continues, the governor said. 

Kryvyi Rih is an industrial city and the birthplace of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Several regions in Ukraine reported Russian airstrikes overnight. Ukrainian air defenses put the total number of strikes at 25. Five missiles and 11 drones were intercepted, they said.

A large fire in the Tikhoretsky district of Russia's southern Krasnodar region prompted evacuations after the drone attack.

Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said falling debris from a drone "caused a fire that spread to explosive objects" in the Tikhoretsky district, but no casualties were reported, he said on Telegram.

One village had to be evacuated because of a fire, authorities said, without naming the settlement, citing the risk of explosions.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that it had shot down 101 Ukrainian drones overnight.

"101 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs were destroyed and intercepted by the air defense systems on duty," it said on Telegram.

Some 53 drones were shot down over the Bryansk region in southwestern Russia, which borders Ukraine. Some 18 drones were intercepted in the Krasnodar region, it added. 

Kondratyev later said that at least 1,200 people had been evacuated from Tikhoretsky district.

Russia also temporarily closed the M-9 highway in the western Tver region near the town of Toropets on Saturday to ensure traffic safety. On Wednesday, Toropets was partially evacuated after its ammunition depot was hit by a Ukrainian drone strike and a large fire broke out. 

Ukraine has repeatedly attacked targets on Russian soil, including ammunition and fuel depots, to disrupt supplies to Moscow's troops fighting in Ukraine.

dh/ab (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)