Ukraine girds for Independence Day attacks on war’s six-month mark

KYIV, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Ukrainians mark 31 years since they broke free from the Russia-dominated Soviet Union on Wednesday in what is certain to be a day of defiance against the Kremlin’s six-month-old war to subdue the country once again.

Ukraine’s Independence Day falls six months after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion and will be marked by subdued celebrations under the threat of attack from land, air and sea.

Public gatherings are banned in the capital Kyiv and a curfew is in force in the front-line eastern city of Kharkiv, which has weathered months of shelling.

The government laid out the carcasses of burnt-out Russian tanks and armoured vehicles like war trophies in central Kyiv in a show of defiance. read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned late on Tuesday of the possibility of “repugnant Russian provocations”.

“We are fighting against the most terrible threat to our statehood and also at a time when we have achieved the greatest level of national unity,” Zelenskiy said in an evening address.

Ukraine’s military urged people to take air raid warnings seriously.

“Russian occupiers continue to carry out air and missile attacks on civilian objects on the territory of Ukraine. Do not ignore air raid signals,” the general staff said in a statement early on Wednesday.

Zelenskiy told representatives of about 60 states and international organisations attending a virtual summit on Crimea on Tuesday that Ukraine would drive Russian forces out of the peninsular by any means necessary, without consulting other countries beforehand. read more

The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced over a third of Ukraine’s 41 million people from their homes, left cities in ruins and shaken global markets. It is largely at a standstill with no immediate prospect of peace talks.

In addition to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Russian forces have expanded control to areas of the south including the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts, and chunks of the eastern Donbas region comprising the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Ukraine’s armed forces have said almost 9,000 military personnel have been killed in the war.

Russia has not publicised its losses but U.S. intelligence estimates 15,000 killed in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine. Kyiv says the invasion is an unprovoked act of imperial aggression.

Ukraine broke free of the Soviet Union in August 1991 after a failed putsch in Moscow and an overwhelming majority of Ukrainians voted in a referendum to declare independence.

NUCLEAR PLANT CONCERN

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said the U.N. nuclear watchdog hoped to gain access to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine within days. read more

Both sides have accused the other of firing missiles and artillery dangerously close to the plant, Europe’s biggest, raising fears of a nuclear catastrophe.

“I’m continuing to consult very actively and intensively with all…