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Russia Pounds Ukraine With Missiles, Drones for Second Day in Row

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)
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Russia Pounds Ukraine With Missiles, Drones for Second Day in Row

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)

Russia launched several waves of missile and drone attacks overnight targeting Kyiv and other regions, Ukraine's military said early on Tuesday, a day after Moscow's biggest such attack of the war.
At least one person was killed when a civilian object was "wiped out" in the central Ukraine city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said.
Kyiv region's air defense systems were deployed several times overnight to repel missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital, the region's military administration said on Telegram.
Reuters' witnesses reported at least three rounds of explosions overnight in Kyiv.
On Monday, Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones, killing at least seven and damaging energy infrastructure in an attack condemned by US President Joe Biden as "outrageous."
The size of the Tuesday attacks was not immediately known, but Ukraine's air force said it recorded the launch of several groups of drones and the take-off from Russian airfields of strategic Tu-85 strategic bombers and MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircraft.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
The Kremlin denies targeting civilians in the war that President Vladimir Putin launched against Russia's smaller neighbor with a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Russian defense ministry said that its strikes on Monday hit "all designated targets" in Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure.
Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv and central and eastern regions of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for most of the night, starting at around 2000 GMT on Monday.
Five civilians may be still under the rubble and four were injured as a result of the Russian attack, Oleksandr Vilkul, head of Kryvyi Rih's military administration, said on Telegram.
"The news is bad," Vilkul said.

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UN Nuclear Chief Visits Russia’s Kursk Atomic Plant Near Front Line 

15 November 2022, Berlin: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi speaks during a press conference at the German Foreign Office. (dpa)
15 November 2022, Berlin: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi speaks during a press conference at the German Foreign Office. (dpa)
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UN Nuclear Chief Visits Russia’s Kursk Atomic Plant Near Front Line 

15 November 2022, Berlin: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi speaks during a press conference at the German Foreign Office. (dpa)
15 November 2022, Berlin: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi speaks during a press conference at the German Foreign Office. (dpa)

UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi arrived on Tuesday at the Kursk nuclear power plant which Moscow says has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces that are just 40 km (25 miles) away after carving out a slice of Russian territory.

The safety of nuclear power plants has repeatedly been endangered over the course of the Ukraine war, which began in February 2022 when Russia sent thousands of troops over the border into Ukraine.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly blamed each other for drone and artillery attacks on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, though the Aug. 6 incursion by Ukrainian forces into Russia has put the spotlight on the Kursk plant - a major Soviet-era station.

President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Thursday of trying to attack the Kursk plant, which has four Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK-1000 reactors - the same design as those at the Chornobyl nuclear plant which in 1986 became the scene of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster.

Ukraine has yet to respond to the accusations that it attacked the facility.

Grossi, who has repeatedly warned of a nuclear disaster if nuclear plants continue to be attacked, was shown on Russian state television speaking to Russian nuclear officials at the plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said before his trip that the only way to assess the plant's security and validate the information it was receiving was to visit the site, which is owned by Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom.

"The safety and security of nuclear facilities must, under no circumstances, be endangered," Grossi said. "The safety and security of all nuclear power plants is of central and fundamental concern to the IAEA."

FOREIGN ATTACK

Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers punched through the Russian border on Aug. 6 and then carved out a portion of Russia's western Kursk region, the biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War Two.

Russia says Ukraine sent in thousands of troops along with sabotage units, swarms of drones, heavy artillery, dozens of tanks and heavy Western weaponry. Moscow says it will eject the Ukrainian soldiers.

Just 40 km (25 miles) away from the fighting, the Kursk nuclear power station sits next to the town of Kurchatov, named after legendary Russian physicist Igor Kurchatov.

Of Kursk's four Soviet-era reactors, two are shut down, but two - Number 3 and Number 4 - are operational. Reactor Number 4 was disconnected from the grid on Aug. 25 for 59 days of cooling system repairs.

Construction of the Kursk-2 power plant, using essentially new reactors of the VVER-510 type, began in 2018. The two reactors are not operational yet.

The IAEA said on Aug. 22 that it had been informed by Russia that the remains of a drone were found about 100 meters (330 feet) from the Kursk plant's spent fuel nuclear storage facility.

Radiation levels in the area were normal, according to Russian monitoring stations.