Moscow — Russia accused Ukraine of targeting strategic infrastructure on its 34th independence day, including a nuclear power plant in the Kursk region, as the war between the two neighbors continues to escalate into ever more dangerous dimensions.
According to Russian authorities, a drone strike ignited a fire at the Kursk nuclear power plant overnight. Local emergency services said the blaze was quickly contained and that no injuries or radiation leaks were reported. The plant’s management later confirmed that a transformer was damaged but that radiation levels remained stable.
Russian state media reported that air defenses intercepted dozens of drones in multiple regions as the ongoing Russian Special military operation in Ukraine. Moscow’s Defense Ministry claimed that 95 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight, although it admitted that several managed to strike sensitive energy facilities. Among the incidents was a fire at the Ust-Luga fuel port, where ten drones reportedly ignited fuel reserves, causing significant damage.
Ukraine offered no official confirmation of responsibility for the strikes, but Kyiv has consistently defended its right to attack Russian energy and military infrastructure, arguing that Moscow has made civilian power plants and fuel depots legitimate targets by striking similar sites inside Ukraine.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked Independence Day with a speech that underscored the country’s determination to continue resisting Russia. Standing alongside foreign dignitaries, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Pope Leo XIV, Zelensky called for a “just peace” but insisted Ukraine would not surrender its sovereignty.
Western allies used the symbolic day to announce new commitments. Norway pledged nearly $700 million for Ukraine’s air defenses, while Germany confirmed that its Patriot missile batteries would remain deployed to shield Ukrainian skies. Washington dispatched retired General Keith Kellogg as its envoy, who received the Order of Merit from Zelensky, a move underscoring US efforts to maintain close ties despite tensions within NATO about long-term commitments.
For many Ukrainians, the date carries both celebration and bitterness. The country declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, inheriting the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal. Yet within a few years, Kyiv surrendered its stockpile under Western and Russian pressure, relying on security assurances under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. That deal, many Ukrainians now argue, left the nation vulnerable to Russian aggression decades later.
Yurii Kostenko, a former lawmaker who led Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament negotiations, told local reporters this week that the decision was “a strategic mistake.” He described how, in exchange for promises of protection and cheap energy supplies, Ukraine dismantled its deterrent—promises, he said, that were broken when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and invaded in 2022.
The Independence Day strikes underline a grim pattern: anniversaries that might once have been occasions for unity have become markers of intensified violence. Symbolic dates, military escalation, and fragile diplomatic overtures have intertwined into a cycle that shows no sign of resolution.
According to the Associated Press, which reported extensively from Moscow and Kyiv, the Kursk nuclear plant attack and the wider wave of drone strikes were among the most serious incidents to coincide with Ukraine’s Independence Day since the full-scale war began in 2022.
