Ukraine on alert ahead of independence day while denying role in Moscow car bomb

Ukrainian officials have warned that Moscow’s military could do something “particularly nasty” to mar the country’s forthcoming independence day, and denied that Kyiv was behind a bomb attack that killed the daughter of a prominent pro-Kremlin ideologue outside the Russian capital.

Ukraine also accused Russian forces of continuing to shell government-held territory near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which international inspectors want to visit to check the safety of Europe’s biggest atomic site, which is in occupied territory near the frontline.

“We should be aware that this week Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel. Such is our enemy,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said ahead of his nation’s independence day on August 24th – which will also be six months since the Kremlin launched an all-out invasion of pro-western Ukraine.

“Therefore, it is important never − not for a single moment – to give in to this enemy pressure… to show weakness,” he added.

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All staff at Ukraine’s parliament and government buildings in central Kyiv have been urged to work from home during the coming week, amid fears that Russia may go through with often-repeated threats to bomb key “decision-making centres” in the city.

Curfew looming

The major Ukrainian city and province of Kharkiv, just 35km from the Russian border, will be under extended lockdown over independence day for security reasons.

“The curfew will last from 7pm on August 23rd to 7am on August 25th. We ask that you understand such measures and prepare to stay at home and in shelters − this is for our safety,” said regional governor Oleh Synehubov.

Shelling continued over the weekend in Kharkiv, and to the south in the partially occupied areas of Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian officials said that, in the early hours of Sunday, 25 Russian shells hit the government-held city of Nikopol, across the Dnieper river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine.

Kyiv accuses Russia’s military of hiding weapons in and firing from the six-reactor plant, which fell under Moscow’s control soon after its all-out invasion began on February 24th. Each side blames the other for shelling that has damaged radiation sensors and power lines at the facility.

Nuclear monitors

Russia has rejected calls from Kyiv and United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres to “demilitarise” the plant and surrounding area but claims to want international nuclear safety monitors to visit the site.

Russian law enforcement agencies are investigating the death on Saturday night of Darya Dugina (30), daughter of ultra-nationalist Russian philosopher and writer Alexander Dugin, when a bomb planted under her car exploded in a suburb of Moscow.

Several Russian politicians and analysts said Mr Dugin was the likely target of the attack and pointed the finger of blame at Kyiv, because of the fervent support expressed by both father and daughter for the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, which has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.

“Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this, because we are not a criminal state like the Russian Federation and, moreover, we are not a terrorist state,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Mr Zelenskiy.

Albanian prime minister Edi Rama said on Saturday that two Russian citizens and a Ukrainian national were “suspected of espionage” after being detained when one of them allegedly tried to enter and photograph a weapons factory in the Balkan state.

Albanian defence minister Niko Peleshi said “this cannot be dismissed as just as an ordinary, civilian incident” but insisted there should be no “rush to conclusions” about the motives of the detainees.