Russia destroys ammo depot in Ukraine

The Russian defence ministry said it had destroyed a large ammunition depot in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region that had contained US-made HIMARS rocket systems and shells for M777 Howitzers.

The announcement in June that Washington would provide the rocket systems, which are lightweight and easily manoeuvrable while generally considered more accurate than other systems, was considered a major battlefield gain for Ukraine.

The Russian Air Force late on Saturday also said it shot down a MiG-29 aircraft in the Donetsk region in the Donbas, destroying six missile and artillery weapons depots in the Donetsk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

Meanwhile, fighting has continued in the south and east of Ukraine, with Ukrainian forces pushing ahead with a counter-offensive centred around the city of Kherson, which was captured by Russian troops shortly after the invasion was launched on February 24.

Ukrainian strategy has focussed on destroying four bridges Russian forces must hold to supply Kherson, located at the southern end of the Dnipro river.

In the eastern Donbas region, Russian forces were continuing to target the strategic city of Bakhmut, which was shelled again, according to Russian a Ukrainian military report.

Still, Ukraine has been able to stave off the Russian advance at Bakhmut and near Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, according to the military.

Russian artillery also fired at Ukrainian towns across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant overnight, local officials said yesterday, adding to residents' anguish as reports of shelling around the plant fuelled fears of a radiation disaster.

Russia's defence ministry said yesterday there was more Ukrainian shelling of the plant over the past 24 hours, just a day after Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations of targeting Europe's biggest nuclear plant, which has prompted grave international concern.

Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said it had no new information about attacks on the plant, reports Reuters.

Captured by Russian troops in March, but still run by Ukrainian staff, the complex on the southern front line of the war has been one of the major hotspots in the six-month-old conflict.

Regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said on Telegram yesterday that Russian forces struck residential buildings in the region's main city of Zaporizhzhia, about a two-hour drive from the plant, and the town of Orikhiv further east.

On Saturday, Starukh told Ukrainian television residents were being taught how to use iodine in case of a radiation leak.

Ukraine's military reported shelling of nine more towns in the area on the opposite side of the Dnipro river from the plant in its daily report, while the RIA agency quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying its air force struck a Motor Sich MSICH.UAX plant in the region where helicopters were repaired.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said nine shells fired by the Ukrainian artillery in two separate attacks landed on the nuclear plant's grounds.

The United Nations and Kyiv have called for a withdrawal of military equipment and personnel from the plant to ensure it is not a target.

The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA is waiting for clearance for its officials to visit the plant, which its head said on Thursday should be "very, very close".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Friday the situation at Zaporizhzhia remained "very risky" a day after it took hours to reconnect two of its reactors to the grid after shelling cut them off.