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Kremlin: No Heavy Weapons at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant

Members of the Ukrainian National guard demining team Battalion Dnipro 1 navigate in mine fields, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, December 12, 2022. (Reuters)
Members of the Ukrainian National guard demining team Battalion Dnipro 1 navigate in mine fields, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, December 12, 2022. (Reuters)
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Kremlin: No Heavy Weapons at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant

Members of the Ukrainian National guard demining team Battalion Dnipro 1 navigate in mine fields, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, December 12, 2022. (Reuters)
Members of the Ukrainian National guard demining team Battalion Dnipro 1 navigate in mine fields, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, December 12, 2022. (Reuters)

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia had not placed heavy weapons at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russian forces of using the nuclear facility, which Russia seized in the first days of the conflict, as a de facto weapons depot. Both sides have accused each other of shelling the plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station.

In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Russia remains in contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is trying to broker the creation of a demilitarized zone around the power station.

The Kremlin also said Ukraine must take into account the "realities" that have developed in the Ukraine conflict for there to be peace between the two sides.

Peskov dismissed a reported three-step proposal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to bring about peace, adding that progress was not possible "without taking realities into account".

He was responding to a request by Zelenskiy to leaders from Group of Seven powers on Monday for more military equipment, support for financial and energy stability, and backing for a peace solution that would start with Russia withdrawing troops from Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly said it is willing to hold peace talks but that it does not see Ukraine and the West, which is supplying Kyiv with weapons, as ready to do so. Ukraine says Russia must halt its attacks and withdraw from all territory it has occupied.

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Ukraine Claims Three Oil Refinery Strikes inside Russia as Moscow Says Naval Attack Thwarted

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a glide bomb attack on a private building in Vilkhivka village near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 19 June 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a glide bomb attack on a private building in Vilkhivka village near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 19 June 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Ukraine Claims Three Oil Refinery Strikes inside Russia as Moscow Says Naval Attack Thwarted

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a glide bomb attack on a private building in Vilkhivka village near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 19 June 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a glide bomb attack on a private building in Vilkhivka village near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, 19 June 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

The Ukrainian military launched a wave of drones that struck three oil refineries inside southern Russia overnight, a security official said Friday, as Ukraine tries to disrupt the infrastructure that supplies the Russian military.

Russia said its air defenses shot down scores of drones, including a half dozen it said were launching a naval attack in the Black Sea.

The Ukrainian security official said his country's forces also struck a drone-launching facility within Russia, but declined to say how that target was attacked. The operations involved the armed forces and the Ukrainian Security Service, SBU, the official said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to announce the information publicly.

SBU drones struck oil refineries in the Russian locations of Afipsky, Ilsky, and Krasnodar, which supply fuel for ships in Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the official said.

Ukranian forces also struck a drone facility in the southern Russia town of Yeysk where Iranian-designed Shahed drones were stored and launched, the official said. A “series of explosions” were recorded there, the official said.

Russian regional authorities in the Krasnodar region said four people were injured, including oil refinery workers, as a result of drone strikes.

Despite improvements in Russia’s air defenses, Ukraine has continued its campaign to strike oil infrastructure across the border, hitting multiple sites in 2024, as part of a wider effort to disrupt Russia’s military supplies.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defenses had downed 114 Ukrainian drones It said that 70 drones were shot down in Crimea and the Black Sea, 43 in the Krasnodar region and one in the Volgograd region, further east.

Russian warplanes also destroyed six Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea early Friday, the ministry said, responding to an incident that appeared to be one of the largest drone attacks of its type in recent months.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, said that Ukrainian drones also damaged a boiler room near a bus station in the city of Krasnodar, killing a worker.