Ukraine says Russian shelling 13 kills overnight, Britain flags new Russian ground force

MOSCOW (REUTERS) - Russian shelling killed at least 13 people in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, governor Valentyn Reznychenko said on Wednesday (Aug 10), as Britain said Russia had “almost certainly” established a major new ground force to support its war.

More than 20 buildings were damaged in Marganets, he said, a city across the Dnipro river from the Russian-captured Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, where there have been other reports of shelling.

The attack damaged a power line, leaving several thousand people without electricity, Mr Reznychenko said. The attack damaged a hostel, two schools, a concert hall, the main council building and other administrative bases, he added.

The new Russian force, called the 3rd Army Corps, is based in the city of Mulino, east of Russia’s capital, Moscow, the British Defence Ministry said in a daily intelligence bulletin.

The ministry also said Russian commanders were facing“competing operational priorities” of reinforcing their offensive in the Donbas region in the east, as well as strengthening defences against Ukrainian counterattacks in the south.

After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early in the war, Russian forces have focused on the east and south, where pro-Moscow separatists have controlled territory since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

A senior Ukrainian official suggested a series of explosions at a Russian air base in Crimea could have been the work of partisan saboteurs, as Kyiv denied any responsibility for the incident deep inside Russian-occupied territory.

The adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky also suggested Russian incompetence as a possible cause of Tuesday’s (Aug 9) blasts.

They killed one civilian and injured eight, according to the health department in Russia-annexed Crimea.

Huge plumes of smoke could be seen in videos posted on social media from Crimea, a holiday destination for many Russians. Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and used it in February as one of the launchpads for its invasion.

Witnesses said they had heard at least 12 explosions around 3.20pm local time (8.20pm Singapore time) from the Saky air base near Novofedorivka on the west coast of the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and used in February as one of the launchpads for its invasion.

Crimea, a holiday destination for many Russians, has so far been spared the bombardment and artillery combat that other areas of eastern and southern Ukraine have suffered.

Russia’s defence ministry was adamant the “detonation of several aviation ammunition stores” had caused an explosion, and initially said no one had been harmed. It said there had been no attack and no aviation equipment had been damaged.

Asked whether Ukraine was taking responsibility for the blasts, presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak told the Dozhd online television channel: “Of course not. What do we have to do with this?”

Moscow could accuse Kyiv of crossing a red line if Ukraine were to acknowledge it had attacked territory that Russia sees as its own.

Podolyak, who advises President Volodymyr Zelensky, suggested the blast could be down to Russian incompetence or an attack by partisans.

“People who are living under occupation understand that the occupation is coming to an end,” he said.

Russian news agencies quoted an unnamed ministry source as saying “only a violation of fire safety requirements is considered as the main reason for the explosion of several ammunition stores at the Saky airfield.”

“There are no signs, evidence or, even less, facts (to indicate) a deliberate impact on ammunition stores,” the source was quoted as saying.

Crimea’s health department said one civilian had been killed and another eight injured.

Zelensky did not specifically mention the blasts in an evening video address but said it was right that people were focusing on Crimea.

“The Black Sea region cannot be safe while Crimea is occupied,” he said, reiterating Kyiv’s position that Crimea would have to be returned to Ukraine.

Ukraine’s defence ministry earlier issued a statement in a heavily suggestive tone reminiscent of its response to unexplained blasts on Russian territory, saying it “once again draws attention to fire safety rules”

The Russian governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said a five-kilometre exclusion zone had been established around the air base, which is close to the seaside resorts of Novofedorivka and Saky.

Numerous videos taken from beaches were posted on social media, showing huge plumes of smoke in the distance.

Novofedorivka and Saky are around 50km north of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which Moscow leased from Kyiv for decades before seizing and annexing the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, in a move not recognised by most other countries.

In July, an official in Crimea accused Ukraine of injuring five people in a drone attack in Sevastopol. Kyiv did not comment.

Separately, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that Russian forces destroyed a German-supplied Gepard anti-aircraft system in use by Ukrainian forces in the Mykolaiv region.

In its daily briefing, the Defence Ministry also said it had shot down three Ukrainian warplanes in the Mykolaiv region, as well as seven HIMARS missiles in the neighbouring Kherson region.

There were lingering concerns about the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine after each side accused the other of shelling in recent days.

It was vital for the Kyiv government to regain control of the plant in time for winter, Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power firm Energoatom said in an interview with Reuters.

Last week’s Russian shelling had damaged three lines that connect the plant to the Ukrainian grid, he said. Russia wanted to connect the facility to its grid, Mr Kotin said.

He said “the risk is very high” of shelling hitting containers storing radioactive material.

Both Ukraine and Russia have said they want technicians from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to visit Zaporizhzhia, the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe.

Russia has asked for IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to brief the UN Security Council on Thursday on Moscow’s accusation of attacks by “the Ukrainian armed forces on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and their potential catastrophic consequences,” diplomats said.

Ukraine has denied the Russian assertion that its forces attacked the plant.

In the northern town of Bucha, 15 bodies were buried on Tuesday after they were found four months after Russian forces withdrew from the area.

“All the people who were shot and exhumed from a mass grave have torture marks on them,” Bucha Deputy Mayor Mykhailyna Skoryk told reporters.

Ukraine and its allies accuse Russian forces of committing atrocities in Bucha, a satellite town of the capital Kyiv, after beginning its invasion on Feb 24. Russia denied the allegation.

What Moscow calls a “special military operation,” Ukraine and its allies say is an unprovoked imperial-style war of aggression and it is banking on sophisticated Western-supplied rocket and artillery systems to degrade Russian supply lines and logistics.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed documents of Washington’s support for Finland and Sweden joining Nato, the most significant expansion of the military alliance since the 1990s and prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.