Ukraine war live: 1,000 people evacuated from Krasnodar amid Kyiv’s drone barrage

Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Saturday that Russia appeared to be planning strikes on Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the winter, urging the IAEA and Ukraine’s allies to establish permanent monitoring missions at the country’s nuclear plants.

“In particular, it concerns open distribution devices at (nuclear power plants and) transmission substations, critical for the safe operation of nuclear energy,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped to meet Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump next week when he travels to the United States to present Ukraine’s “victory plan” in the war against Russia.

“We will most likely have a meeting, I think, on September 26-27,” Zelensky told media late on Friday, without providing further details.

At least 1,200 people were evacuated from the Tikhoretsky District in Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region, the local governor said on Saturday.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had downed 18 drones over the Krasnodar region overnight. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.

Most of those evacuated were staying with friends and relatives, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar region, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Vladimir Putin’s troops have launched over 100 deadly glide bombs at Ukraine as part of their ongoing aerial assault of the country.

Russia fired 108 KABs – the Ukrainian acronym for guided aerial bomb – at Ukrainian positions on Friday, Kyiv said.

They are old-fashioned “iron” aerial bombs of the sort that were dropped by bombers during the Second World War.

In Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine, a 12-year-old boy was killed alongside two elderly women after a Russian overnight missile attack.

“Again, a terrifying enemy attack on Kryvyi Rih. In the middle of the night, when the city slept,” the city’s governor Serhiy Lysak said.

The two women killed in the attack were 75 and 79. Mr Lysak also said two buildings were destroyed and 20 more were damaged.

A proposed corridor through Armenia would effectively sever the country’s connection to Iran and slice through its sovereign territory, with the support of Moscow, writes former MP Lord Alton.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow is prepared to defend its interests in the Arctic through diplomatic, military, and technical means.

His comments come in response to increasing US and Nato military exercises in the region, which Mr Lavrov sees as a potential threat. In comments quoted in Russian media, he emphasised that Russia is fully equipped to protect its interests amid rising tensions.

“We see how Nato is intensifying exercises in connection with possible crises in the Arctic,” Mr Lavrov was quoted as saying in a documentary series titled “Soviet Breakthrough”.

“Our country is fully ready to defend its interests in military, political and military-technical terms.”

His remarks follow a US Pentagon report highlighting intensified Russian activity in the Arctic, including the reopening of Soviet-era military sites and cooperation with China on shipping routes and minerals, which the US believes could affect polar stability.