Ukraine carried out a series of drone strikes against Russia, causing a fire at a nuclear power plant, as the country marked its Independence Day amid fading hopes for imminent peace efforts.

After intense diplomatic activity and pressure from US President Donald Trump to broker a summit between his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, prospects for peace appeared stalled on August 22 when Russia ruled out any possibility of an immediate meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.

The war, which has been going on for three and a half years and has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, is in virtual stalemate. However, Russia has managed to achieve some successes in its fierce offensive, including the capture of two villages in the eastern part of the Donetsk region on August 23, AFP reported.

Ukraine responded today by sending drones for new attacks on Russian territory, including one that was shot down over the Kursk nuclear power plant in western Russia. The drone exploded on impact and caused a fire, the plant said in a statement.

The plant said the fire had been extinguished and added that there were no casualties or increased radiation levels.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned of the dangers of combat operations near nuclear power plants since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian authorities reported that Ukrainian drones had been shot down over areas sometimes far from the front lines, including St. Petersburg in the northwestern part of the country.

Ten drones were shot down over the port of Ust-Luga in the Gulf of Finland, causing a fire at a fuel terminal owned by Russian energy group Novatek, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko wrote on Telegram.

The smaller and less well-armed Ukrainian army relies heavily on drones to respond to the Russian invasion, with targets mainly focused on oil infrastructure to hit a key source of revenue for Moscow to finance the war.

Russia has seen fuel prices rise since the attacks began.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said Russia attacked it overnight with a ballistic missile and 72 Iranian Shahed drones, 48 of which were shot down by the air force.

A Russian drone attack killed a 47-year-old woman in the eastern part of the Dnipropetrovsk region, the governor said. | BGNES