Russian strikes kill civilians and hit nuclear waste site near Chernobyl as Zelensky heads to London summit

Civilian casualties in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk

Russian strikes on Sunday killed at least two civilians in separate regions of Ukraine. In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a drone hit a suburb of the regional capital, killing a 56-year-old minibus driver who was stopped at a terminus. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine posted a photograph of the heavily damaged vehicle on Telegram. A 59-year-old man was killed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region during drone and aerial bombing attacks across two districts, according to regional military chief Oleksandr Ganzha. A 35-year-old man was wounded and infrastructure was damaged. Some sources reported higher tolls: RFI cited five dead overall, including three killed and three wounded in a later strike on a village in Zaporizhzhia region near a public transport stop, while Mediapart reported at least four dead.

Strike on Chernobyl spent fuel storage

A Russian drone strike partially destroyed a container reception building at the centralised spent nuclear fuel storage site in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, state nuclear operator Energoatom said on Telegram. The building was empty at the time and radiation levels remained normal. The storage facility is located about 15 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the 1986 disaster. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the attack caused significant damage and that nearby buildings were also affected by the shock wave. An IAEA team on the ground was due to visit the site to assess the extent of the damage.

The incident is deeply concerning as it occurred at a site containing large quantities of nuclear material.

This is not the first time that Russian forces have endangered Ukrainian nuclear facilities.

Scale of the overnight assault

Ukraine's Air Force reported that Russia targeted the country with 236 drones overnight from Saturday to Sunday, of which 215 were intercepted. The Russian Defence Ministry said it had carried out strikes on sites linked to the Ukrainian military. Meanwhile, Russia's Defence Ministry announced on Sunday morning that it had intercepted 95 Ukrainian drones since the previous evening, as Kyiv has intensified its own drone strikes on occupied territories and inside Russia.

London diplomatic summit

President Volodymyr Zelensky was due to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Sunday. Macron, Merz and Starmer were to hold talks among themselves first before receiving Zelensky. The Élysée Palace said the meeting aimed to take stock of work undertaken toward a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. The summit comes days after Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an open letter, also offering readiness for a full ceasefire. Putin rejected the idea, saying a final agreement to end the war must be negotiated beforehand.

We have descended to the same level at which Eurozone countries have been experiencing growth for the past few years.

Broader military and economic context

Ukraine recaptured more territory than it lost to Russian forces in May for the second straight month, according to AFP analysis of Institute for the Study of War data. Russia's offensive has meanwhile produced rising prices, tax hikes, two-decade-high borrowing costs, business shutdowns and labour shortages, putting the economy in its most difficult position since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. The London summit was expected to focus on coordinating European support for Kyiv and increasing political, economic and military pressure on Moscow.