Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces advance on Pokrovsk as Kyiv drones ‘spark fires at power plants’

One civilian was killed and four others injured in Russian shelling overnight on Ukraine’s Sumy region on the border between the two warring countries, the local Ukrainian administration said on Sunday.

“During the night and morning, the Russians carried out 18 shellings of border territories and settlements of the Sumy region. 47 explosions were recorded,” the administration said on Telegram.

It said nine districts of the region were under attack.

Local prosecutors clarified later on Sunday that Russia had launched a missile attack on a convoy of grain trucks on the Sumy-Kharkiv route in Sumy district and a 23-year-old truck driver was killed.

It said one truck caught fire and about 20 others were damaged.

Ukraine’s air force said in a separate statement it had destroyed eight out of eleven Russian attack drones used overnight.

“This time, the occupiers targeted Ukrainian grain and the logistics of the agricultural sector, particularly in Mykolaiv and Sumy regions,” the air force said, giving no more details.

The Sumy region borders Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a major cross-border incursion on 6 August. Russian troops, meanwhile, continue to press towards the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine launched waves of drone attacks targeting power and refinery plants in the Moscow region and neighbouring Tver, sparking fires, while tens of drones were destroyed across other parts of the country, Russian officials said on Sunday.

Drone debris sparked fires at the Moscow Oil Refinery and at the Konakovo Power Station in the Tver region, one of the largest energy producers in central Russia, officials and media said.

Russia’s defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app that its air defence units had destroyed 158 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, including nine over Moscow and its surrounding region.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said earlier that several drones targeted the Moscow refinery and a fire was being extinguished at a “separate technical room” at the plant.

Russia’s TASS news agency, citing fire emergency officials, said the fire was assigned the highest level of complexity but has since ben contained.

The refinery in the southeast of the Russian capital is owned by Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom. Gazprom Neft declined to comment.

The Baza Telegram news channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, said loud blasts were heard near the Konakovo power plant.

Tver Governor Igor Rudenya said there was a fire in the town of Konakovo but that electricity and gas supplies were uninterrupted. He did not say what was burning.

Ukraine also attempted to strike the Kashira Power Plant in the Moscow region with three drones, Mikhail Shuvalov, head of the Kashira city district said on Telegram. There was no fire, damage or casualties as a result of the attack, he said.

“Electricity is being supplied without problems,” Shuvalov posted on Telegram.

A fire caused by an overnight drone attack at the Moscow Oil Refinery has been contained, the TASS state news agency reported on Sunday, citing emergency services.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said debris from several Ukrainian-launched drones targeted the Moscow refinery, sparking a fire at a “separate technical room” at the plant.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said air defences had intercepted and destroyed 158 drones overnight into Sunday, including two over the city of Moscow and nine over the surrounding Moscow region.

Forty-six were over the Kursk region, where Ukraine has sent its forces in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II.

The defence ministry said 34 more drones were destroyed over Bryansk, 28 over Voronezh and 14 over the Belgorod regions. Several more were downed over Kaluga, Lipetsk, Ryazan and a score of other Russian regions, the ministry said.

There were no injuries as a result of any of the attacks, according to preliminary information. Russia rarely discloses the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukraine’s air attacks.

Ukrainian drone strikes have brought the fight far from the front line into the heart of Russia. Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals to slow down the Kremlin’s assault.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed a summit in India pushing forward a plan to end the war with Russia, according to Bloomberg.

People asking not to be identified said that Zelensky’s proposal was put to Modi during his visit to Ukraine last week.

The Indian prime minister has shown his willingness to play a “constructive role” in a peace process, even though it is too early to comment on specific modalities and pathways at this stage,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s ministry of external affairs.

All nations of the Global South have insisted that without Russia’s inclusion at any proposed peace talks there can be no way ahead.

“The Ukrainian side hopes that the government of Mongolia is aware of the fact that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Telegram.

The Kremlin responded saying it was “not worried”.

At least 16,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since April, according to a data project by the BBC’s Russia service and independent Russian media outlet Mediazona.

The project records deaths from official reports and media and satellite analysis of Russian graveyards.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that a fire has broken out in the Moscow Oil Refinery following a drone attack from Ukraine.

The fire has been assigned the highest level of complexity, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported.

Earlier, the mayor had said that a Ukraine-launched drone was destroyed near the Moscow Oil Refinery, and no damage to the refinery’s production process had been caused.

Ukraine had launched several overnight drone attacks targeting power and refinery plants in Moscow and Tver.

The new consignment of Orlov Trotters, which are said to be the North Korean leaders’ favourite breed, were brought over the narrow land border on Sunday, according to an announcement made by the veterinary authorities in Primorsky Krai, which is the Russian Far East region connected by rail to North Korea, reported The Times.

The delivery of the 19 stallions and five mares is reported by South Korean media to be partial payment for North Korean artillery shells sent to Russia for use in its invasion of Ukraine.