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Drones hit multiple oblasts
Russian forces launched 119 drones in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, and Ukraine’s air force said 97 were intercepted, while 20 drones still reached 11 Ukrainian localities.
“la Russie lance 119 drones, dont 97 ont été abattus”
A Russian drone strike on the city of Zaporizhzhia in the south-east of Ukraine left one person dead and seven others injured, according to the emergency services cited by Euronews on Wednesday 17 June morning.
Euronews also reported at least four deaths in Donetsk oblast and at least two more in Kherson, while strikes in the region of Soumy injured at least four people and damaged civilian infrastructure.
The New Voice of Ukraine described a separate overnight sequence on July 1 in which air raid alerts were declared across parts of Ukraine as explosions were reported in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
In that July 1 update, the Ukrainian Air Force reported guided aerial bomb launches targeting Zaporizhzhia Oblast and drones approaching Dnipro from the north and from the south, with air raid alerts remaining in effect across multiple oblasts.
Officials trade blame
Ukrainian officials and President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russian attacks while also describing the scale of casualties, with Al Jazeera reporting that Russian missile and drone strikes killed at least eight people and wounded 34 others.
Al Jazeera quoted Zelenskyy saying that at least five people were killed and 28 wounded in a Russian missile attack on Dnipro city, and it also reported that Zelenskyy said Russia carried out strikes in the Sumy, Odesa, Chernihiv, Kherson and Kharkiv regions.
In Zaporizhzhia, El Mundo described a Shahed crashing meters from a busy intersection on Sobornyi Street, and it included a witness account from Katerina Portna after she told the journalist, "I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get out. I was also wearing my seat belt,".
El Mundo also captured a street-level reaction as one person shouted, "Get out of here, get out of here!" while citizens fled on foot as the drone fell.
The New Voice of Ukraine added that Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said relay stations used to guide Russian drones from Belarus had not yet been dismantled, and Syrskyi said, "We have plenty of capabilities. We have experience, trained crews and prepared forces."
Nuclear risk and escalation
Beyond battlefield strikes, the sources focused on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the risk of escalation, with France 24 saying the IAEA reported the plant was hit by a drone and that radiation levels remained normal.
“"There should be no attack of any kind coming from the plant or aimed at it,"”
France 24 quoted the IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi warning, "There should be no attack of any kind coming from the plant or aimed at it," and it added that he said, "Attacking nuclear sites is playing with fire,".
The France 24 report also said Rosatom accused the Ukrainian army of carrying out the deliberate attack and claimed the drone was guided by an optical fiber cable, while the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations as lacking "logic."
Vietnam.vn further reported that the IAEA Director General called for an end to attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear site and said Grossi described the May 30 attack as a "serious incident" that jeopardizes the fundamental principles of nuclear safety.
Vietnam.vn also said that on May 31 Dmitri Medvedev warned that in the event of a catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Russia could retaliate with attacks on nuclear power plants in NATO countries involved in the conflict.
