Russia will step up attacks for Ukraine independence day, US warns

The United States has intelligence that Russia is planning to launch fresh attacks against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities that could coincide with Ukraine’s independence day tomorrow.

President Zelensky has also warned of a potential escalation of Russian attacks, saying that Moscow’s forces could try something “particularly ugly” on the 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from Soviet rule, which also marks six months since the invasion began.

In a briefing based on declassified intelligence, the US State Department said last night: “We have information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days.

“Given Russia’s track record in Ukraine, we are concerned about the continued threat that Russian strikes pose to civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

The US embassy in Kyiv cited the warning and advised American citizens in the country “to depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so”.

Russia carried out artillery and air strikes in the Zaporizhzhya region, Ukraine’s general staff said, where fighting near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has raised fears of a catastrophic nuclear incident. It said Russia fired artillery and conducted air strikes near front lines in the south, in several towns near to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear reactor complex on the south bank of the Dnipro River

Ukrainians living nearby voiced fears that shells could hit one of the plant’s six reactors.

 “Of course, we are worried . . . It’s like sitting on a powder keg,” Alexander Lifirenko, a resident of the nearby town of Enerhodar, told news agencies yesterday.

American intelligence correctly predicted that Russia would invade Ukraine this year, despite some scepticism about President Putin’s intentions and denials by the Kremlin.

Zelensky said yesterday that he had discussed “all the threats” with President Macron of France and had contacted other world leaders — including Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, and President Erdogan of Turkey.

As a precaution, Kyiv and other cities have banned large public celebrations of independence day this week, although an exhibition of burnt-out Russian vehicles has attracted visitors to a central area of the capital.

Kharkiv, which has come under frequent and deadly long-range Russian bombardments, has declared an overnight curfew from tonight to Thursday. Elsewhere Ukrainians were advised to work from home.

Zelensky said that the Kremlin’s forces in occupied Ukraine could stage a trial of captured soldiers in Mariupol, which he feared could result in their execution. “If this despicable court takes place, if our people are brought into these settings in violation of all agreements, all international rules, this will be the line beyond which no negotiations are possible,” he added.

Last night three Ukrainian soldiers who were wounded and taken prisoner by Russia after fighting at the Azovstal steelworks and later released accused their captors of torture. They said that the aim was to force them to confess to crimes against civilians.

“I was interrogated even before I started receiving antibiotics after my leg was amputated,” Vladyslav Zhaivoronok said. “The guys who were there were tortured. Some had needles inserted into their wounds, some were tortured with water, some received inadequate treatment.”

General Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said nearly 9,000 of his soldiers had been killed since the invasion began. Western analysts suggest that up to 80,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded.

The United Nations said on Monday that at least 5,587 civilians were verified to have been killed and 7,890 wounded since the start of the invasion on February 24, mainly from artillery, rocket and missile attacks. Unicef, the UN children’s agency, said at least 972 children have been killed or injured during that six months of war.

Gennady Gatilov, a Russian representative at the UN, dismissed speculation of potential talks between Zelensky and Putin to end the conflict, saying there was no “practical platform for this”.

Putin’s forces continued their attacks across several Ukrainian regions yesterday with shelling in Nikopol, a city in the southern Zaporizhzhya region not far from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which is held by the Russians.