Two Russian villages evacuated after fire in arsenal near Ukrainian border

Residents of two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region on the northeastern border of Ukraine were evacuated after a fire broke out at a nearby arsenal.

The fire is the latest in a series of devastating events in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory or within Russia.

About 1,100 people live in the villages of Timonovo and Soloti, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the Ukrainian border.

Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the fire broke out late on Thursday and there were no casualties.

The fire comes days after another ammunition depot exploded on Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a Russian-occupied territory that was seized by Moscow in 2014.

Nine Russian warplanes were reportedly destroyed at an air base in Crimea last week, a sign of Russia’s vulnerability and Ukraine’s ability to strike deep behind enemy lines. Ukrainian authorities have not publicly claimed responsibility.

But Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky suggested Ukraine was behind enemy lines after the Crimea bombing, which Russia blamed on “sabotage.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in a televised address on Friday that the Ukrainian official’s statement about the Crimea strike facility marked “an escalation of the conflict that the United States and its NATO allies have publicly encouraged.”

Ryabkov said Russian officials had warned the U.S. against such actions in calls with senior officials in the Biden administration, adding that “the U.S.’s deep and public involvement in the ‘war in Ukraine’ effectively puts the United States at risk of becoming a conflict. one side”.

“We don’t want an escalation, we want to avoid a situation where the US becomes a party to the conflict, but so far we haven’t seen them ready to take these warnings deeply and seriously,” he added.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and Moscow continue to accuse each other of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, sparking international fears of a disaster on the continent.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, accused the United States of encouraging Ukraine to attack the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

The facility has been under the control of Russian forces since shortly after the invasion began on February 24.

“If there is a technological catastrophe, the consequences will be felt everywhere in the world,” Mr Patrushev said.

“Washington, London and their associates will take full responsibility for this.”

Ukraine has accused Russia of storing troops and weapons at the Zaporozhye plant and using its site to launch attacks on Ukrainian-held territory.

Ukrainian officials and military analysts say Moscow’s military cynically used the plant as a shield because they knew Ukrainians would hesitate to fire back.

Russia has denied the allegations and, in turn, has accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the plant several times.

After a visit to Ukraine on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Mr Zelensky had asked him to ensure Russia removed weapons stored at the plant, an “important step for world peace” “.

“Zelensky asked us this question specifically: Russia to clear all mines and similar (weapons) there, to make this issue less scary quickly. Because it is a threat,” Mr Erdogan said.

Mr Erdogan, whose country has close ties with both Ukraine and Russia, said he would discuss the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying “Russia must play its part in this”.

The Turkish president made the comments to a group of Turkish journalists late on Thursday as he returned from a trip to Ukraine with Zelensky and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

At the meeting in the western city of Lviv, far from the front lines, leaders discussed expanding prisoner-of-war exchanges and arranging visits by UN atomic experts to help secure nuclear power plants.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the interim administrator of the Moscow-backed Russian-controlled Zaporozhye region, said on Friday that an International Atomic Energy Agency mission could approach the plant from Ukrainian-controlled territory, a change In keeping with Moscow’s previously implied position, the agency’s mission should travel to the plant from Crimea.

“I believe they may also come from the Ukrainian side,” Mr. Baritsky said. “We can safely bring them to the factory and show where the fire is coming from and who is shooting.”

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s special envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said he believed the agency’s visit could actually take place in early September.

Meanwhile, Russia shelled towns and villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, killing at least five people and wounding 10 others, according to local authorities.

The shelling damaged residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in the war-torn region, where Russian troops are advancing to occupy areas still under Ukrainian control.

Earlier on Friday, at least one civilian was killed when Russia shelled the city of Kharkiv in the northwestern Donetsk region, while Russian missiles hit port facilities and a second port in the southern port city of Nikolayev. University building, which had previously been shelled. earlier this week. One person was injured in the attack, authorities said.