Russian strikes kill 3, damage nuclear fuel storage site near Chernobyl, Ukraine says
Three people were killed in a Russian drone strike while waiting at a bus stop in southeastern Ukraine on Sunday, while a separate strike damaged a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Chernobyl, Ukrainian officials said.
In addition to the three killed, another person was wounded in the drone attack in Balabyne, in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, wrote on his Telegram channel.
The storage center damaged in the separate strike is located in the Kyiv region, just nine miles from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine's General Staff said. That attack "partially destroyed" the facility, which was empty at the time, Ukraine's state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom wrote on Telegram. It also sparked a fire, spanning roughly 40 square meters, or 430 square feet, the operator said.
The fire was extinguished within an hour, and radiation remains within safe levels, officials said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said the incident was "deeply concerning" due to the large amounts of nuclear material held at the facility. He said in a statement that the agency would visit the site of the attack soon.
Elsewhere, a Ukrainian attack killed one man and injured a woman in Russia's Kursk region, local Gov. Alexander Khinshtein said.
Zelenskyy meets with world leaders
The latest attacks came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany for talks on ongoing support for Kyiv. Scheduled for Sunday evening, the meeting between Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy follows a major Ukrainian drone strike that targeted St. Petersburg on Saturday.
The large-scale attack on Russia's second-largest city highlighted Kyiv's growing ability to hit deep inside Russia. St. Petersburg Gov. Alexander Beglov said three people sustained minor injuries in Saturday's attack, during which residents were advised to stay indoors.
The U.K., France and Germany, the so-called E3 group of European nations, have been prominent backers of Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The U.K. and France lead the "coalition of the willing" initiative to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace process.
With the front line barely moving as swarms of drones hinder advances, both sides have sought an edge by launching long-range strikes. The war that followed Russia's invasion of its neighbor is more than four years old, with no end in sight.
The St. Petersburg attack, which came less than 24 hours after the end of the city's flagship economic forum, was an embarrassing blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to cast the conflict as a distant event that doesn't affect Russian daily life.
Putin on Friday rejected Zelenskyy's offer for a meeting, saying he sees "no point" in it.
