The attacks come a day before Ukraine celebrates independence from the Soviet Union on Wednesday, when Kyiv banned public celebrations for fear of more attacks in the war that the United Nations said on Monday has killed more than 5,500 civilians.
The US embassy in Kyiv also warned in a statement of Russian plans to strike civilian and government infrastructure in the coming days.
Ukraine said Russia fired artillery and launched air strikes on several towns in the Zaporizhia region near the frontlines in the south of the country, after Russian forces captured the nuclear power plant shortly after its invasion on Feb. 24.
Artillery and missile fire near the Zaporizhia nuclear reactor complex, on the southern bank of the Dnipro River, led to calls for disarmament in the region.
Ukrainians, who live nearby, have expressed fears that the shells could hit one of the plant’s six reactors, with dire consequences.
“Of course we are worried… It’s like sitting on a powder keg,” Alexander Liverenko, a resident of the nearby town of In Yerodar, said Monday.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow might try to do “something very ugly” in the run-up to the 31st anniversary of independence on Wednesday, which also marks half a year since the Russian invasion.
Fearing renewed rocket attacks, authorities in Kyiv moved to ban public events related to Independence Day from Monday through Thursday.
Kiev is far from the front lines and has rarely been hit by Russian missiles since Ukraine repulsed a ground offensive to seize the capital in March.
In Kharkiv, the northeastern city that has been repeatedly hit by artillery fire and long-range missiles, which caused deaths, Mayor Ihor Terekov announced the extension of the curfew throughout the night to start from four in the evening until seven in the morning from Tuesday to Thursday.
Fears of attacks mounted after Russia’s Federal Security Service accused Ukrainian agents on Monday of killing Daria Dugina, the daughter of an extremist nationalist, in a car bomb attack near Moscow that President Vladimir Putin called “evil.” Ukraine denies involvement.
The two sides exchanged accusations over the repeated bombing of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of deploying troops and storing military equipment. Russia denies this and accuses Ukraine of targeting Zaporizhia with drones.
The state-owned RIA news agency, quoting Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky, said that Moscow had requested a meeting of the UN Security Council, on Tuesday, to discuss the situation related to the Zaporizhia station.
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