As Russia launched a deadly second day of attacks across Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kiev had conducted the first test of a domestically produced ballistic missile.
President Zelenskyy also said at a post-forum press conference in Kiev on August 27 that a war with Russia would ultimately end with dialogue, but only if Kiev was in a position of strength.
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Zelenskiy said he wanted to visit the United States in September to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York and meet with U.S. President Joe Biden to present a plan to end the war. Kiev's incursion into Russia's Kursk region is part of that plan, but it also includes other economic and diplomatic steps, he said.
“The main focus of this plan is to get Russia to end the war,” he said, adding that he wanted it to be fair for Ukraine.
He did not elaborate on next steps but said he plans to discuss the plan with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, and possibly former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
His announcement came as Ukraine was begging its Western allies to lift a ban on Kiev using weapons supplied by Western allies to attack military targets deep inside Russian soil, to prevent Moscow's forces from destroying civilian and energy infrastructure.
Ukraine also said it was working on developing the Hlim-2 short-range ballistic missile system, which combines features of a tactical missile system and a multiple rocket launcher.
President Zelenskyy also confirmed the existence of the Ukrainian-made Parjanitsia missile over the weekend, calling it a “new class” of weaponry for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy's comments came hours after Russia's second major drone and missile attack on Ukraine in as many days killed at least five people and wounded several more.
In Kursk, Russia, where fighting has been ongoing since Ukrainian forces launched a surprise invasion of Russian territory on August 6, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear agency, visited the Kurchatov Nuclear Power Plant amid growing concerns about the safety of nuclear facilities.
After his visit, Grossi said the situation was serious and there was a risk of a “nuclear accident” at the plant.
The Kurchatov plant is located about 60 km from the Ukrainian border on the banks of the Seim River, which has been the site of heavy fighting for the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Gen. Oleksandr Shirsky said his forces now control 1,294 square kilometers of land and 100 settlements in Kursk. He also said Ukrainian forces have captured a total of 594 Russian prisoners during the ongoing operation in Kursk.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down a total of 60 drones and five missiles in the early hours of August 27, as Russia launched a new series of attacks.
The new wave of attacks prompted a full air raid alert to be issued across Ukraine.
Ukrainian aviation expert Valery Romanenko told RFE/RL that Russia's recent large-scale air strikes were intended to exceed the capabilities of Ukraine's anti-aircraft missile systems.
Romanenko said the rockets come in “bundles” that look like one rocket to air defense systems, which then fire one rocket but have five or six to shoot down instead of one.
Romanenko also noted that Russia uses X-101 missiles, which have a range of about 5,500 kilometers.
“The Russians are taking advantage of this, planning their trajectories to avoid where anti-aircraft missile systems are located whenever possible,” he told Current Time, a Russian-language station run by RFE/RL. Russia also takes advantage of variations in terrain wherever possible, programming its rockets to hide behind hills and other features to pass undetected and to circle multiple times without losing sight of their targets.
The latest wave of Russian missile attacks hit a hotel in the southern town of Krivi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one man and one woman and wounding five, Governor Serhiy Lysak said in a Telegram message.
Local authorities also said two people were killed in an overnight attack by Russian forces in the southern Zaporizhia region.
A Russian missile killed one person and wounded five in the northeastern Kharkiv region, the region's governor, Oleh Sinyevbov, said in a Telegram message.
Eight Russian drones were shot down in the Khmelnitsky region, but one person was wounded during the attack, the region's governor, Serhiy Tyurin, said in a Telegram message.
Authorities in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, said its air defense systems shot down all 15 drones that attacked Kiev, adding that falling debris caused a fire in a forest park in the city's Dnipro district.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said in the early hours of August 27 that the situation in the region was difficult but manageable amid attempts by Ukrainian forces to invade.
“According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the situation on the border remains difficult but under control. Our troops are carrying out planned operations. I ask you to remain calm and trust only official sources,” Gladkov wrote in Telegram. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian side on Gladkov's claims.
Reuters reports
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