Ukraine launches mass drone attack on Russia, loses more ground in east
Adds details from Kharkiv, Russian nuclear comments, Zelenskiy
Ukraine launches wave of armed drones against Russia
Moscow says it shot down more than 150 drones overnight
Kharkiv struck by Russian missiles, 40 civilians injured
Russian forces advance towards key town in eastern Ukraine
By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, Sept 1 (Reuters) -Kyiv launched one of the biggest drone attacks on Russia since the full-scale war began, targeting power plants and an oil refinery overnight, while Moscow's forces made further advances towards a key town in eastern Ukraine, officials said on Sunday.
Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv injured more than 40 people, including five children, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to renew calls on allies to allow Kyiv to fire Western-supplied missiles deeper into enemy territory and reduce the threat of attack.
The fighting comes at a critical juncture in the two-and-a-half year conflict, with Russia pressing an offensive in eastern Ukraine while trying to expel Ukrainian forces that broke through its western border in a surprise incursion on Aug. 6.
Russia last week pounded Ukraine with its heaviest air strikes of the war, hitting energy facilities, part of a campaign of drone and missile barrages that have killed thousands of civilians and troops since the conflict began in February 2022.
Ukraine, with a rapidly expanding domestic drone industry, has stepped up its own attacks on Russian energy, military and transport infrastructure.
It is also pressing the United States and other allies for permission to use more powerful Western-supplied weapons to inflict greater damage inside Russia and impair Moscow's abilities to attack Ukraine.
"All necessary forces for the rescue operation have been brought in," Zelenskiy said on his Telegram channel, in response to the Kharkiv attack that officials said involved at least 10 missiles and struck locations including a shopping mall.
"And all the necessary forces of the world must be brought in to stop this terror. This does not require extraordinary forces, but enough courage on the part of the leaders - courage to give Ukraine what it needs to defend itself."
In Kharkiv, rescue workers and volunteers carried injured civilians to ambulances after missiles struck the mall and an events hall. Shattered glass and debris were strewn across the ground and people fled to a metro station for safety.
Earlier, Russian officials said air defence units had destroyed 158 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, and that debris caused fires at the Moscow Oil Refinery and at the Konakovo Power Station in the neighbouring Tver region.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports of drone attacks against Russia or from the battlefield in Ukraine, and Kyiv has yet to comment. Russia rarely discloses the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukraine's air attacks.
RUSSIA'S NUCLEAR DOCTRINE
Zelenskiy said that last week alone Russia had used 160 missiles, 780 guided aerial bombs and 400 attack drones against cities and troops across Ukraine.
He called on Telegram for "a decision on long-range strikes on missile launch sites from Russia, destruction of Russian military logistics, joint shooting down of missiles and drones".
Kyiv's allies are wary of how Russian President Vladimir Putin would respond should their weapons be used against targets far inside Russian territory.
Russia's TASS state news cited Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that Moscow would change itsnuclear doctrine in response to the West's actions over the conflict in Ukraine. He did not specify what the changes would entail.
Russia's existing nuclear doctrine, set out in a decree by Putin in 2020, says it may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state.
Russia, which accuses the West of using Ukraine as a proxy to wage war against it, has said before that it is considering changes.
"The work is at an advanced stage, and there is a clear intent to make corrections", TASS cited Ryabkov as saying.
Some hawks among Russia's military analysts have urged Putin to lower the threshold for nuclear use in order to "sober up" Russia's enemies in the West.
In eastern Ukraine, where the heaviest fighting of the war is concentrated, Russian forces continued to advance towards Pokrovsk, which is a vital military hub and transport link to towns and cities further north.
Ukraine had hoped that its surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region launched last month would force Russia to re-deploy troops and take the pressure off besieged forces in the east, but so far it does not appear to have had the desired effect.
Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had captured two more settlements in Donetsk region and were "continuing to advance deep into the enemy defences". One of them, Ptyche, is just 21 km (13 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk.
At least three people were killed and nine wounded in Russian shelling of Kurakhove, a town around 35 km south of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said the situation was "difficult" around Russia's main line of attack in eastern Ukraine.
Additional reporting by Lucy Papachristou and Mark Trevelyan; Writing by Mike Collett-White and Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Gareth Jones
නවතම පුවත්
වියාචනය: XM Group සමාගම් ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම පමණක් වන සේවා සපයන අතර වෙබ් අඩවියේ හෝ වෙබ් අඩවිය හරහා ලබා ගත හැකි අන්තර්ගතය බැලීමට සහ/හෝ භාවිත කිරීමට පුද්ගලයෙකුට ඉඩ සලසමින් අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකම වෙත ප්රවේශය ලබා දෙන අතර වෙනස් කිරීමට හෝ පුළුල් කිරීමට අදහස් නොකරයි. එවැනි ප්රවේශය සහ භාවිතය සෑම විටම (i) නියමයන් සහ කොන්දේසි, (ii) අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් සහ (iii) සම්පූර්ණ වියාචනයට යටත් වේ. එබැවින් එවැනි අන්තර්ගතයක් සාමාන්ය තොරතුරුවලට වඩා වැඩි යමක් සපයා නොමැත. විශේෂයෙන්ම, අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ අන්තර්ගතය පෙළඹවීමක් හෝ මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළවල කිසිදු ගනුදෙනුවක් සිදු කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් නොවන බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න. ඕනෑම මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළක වෙළඳාම් කිරීම ඔබේ ප්රාග්ධනයට සැලකිය යුතු අවදානමක් එක් කරයි.
අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ ප්රකාශිත සියලු කරුණු අධ්යාපනික/තොරතුරුමය අරමුණු සඳහා පමණක් අදහස් කෙරෙන අතර මූල්ය, ආයෝජන බදු හෝ වෙළඳ උපදෙස් සහ නිර්දේශයන්; හෝ අපගේ වෙළඳ මිල පිළිබඳ වාර්තාවක්; හෝ ඕනෑම මූල්ය උපකරණයක ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් හෝ ඒ සඳහා පෙළඹවීමක්; හෝ විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමකින් තොරව ඔබ වෙත ලබා දෙන ලද මූල්ය ප්රවර්ධනයන් ලෙස නොසැලකිය යුතුය.
ඕනෑම තෙවන පාර්ශවීය අන්තර්ගතයක් මෙන්ම XM විසින් සකසන ලද අන්තර්ගතය එනම් අදහස්, පුවත්, පර්යේෂණ, විශ්ලේෂණ, මිල ගණන් සහ වෙනත් තොරතුරු හෝ මෙම වෙබ් අඩවියේ අන්තර්ගත තෙවන පාර්ශවීය වෙබ් අඩවි සඳහා සබැඳි සාමාන්ය වෙළඳපොළ විවරණයක් ලෙස "පවතින පරිදි" සපයා ඇති අතර එහි ආයෝජන උපදෙස් ඇතුළත් නොවේ. ඕනෑම අන්තර්ගතයක් ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයක් ලෙස අර්ථ දක්වා ඇති ප්රමාණයට, ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයේ ස්වාධීනත්වය ප්රවර්ධනය කිරීමට නිර්මාණය කර ඇති නෛතික අවශ්යතාවලට අනුකූලව අන්තර්ගතය සකසා නොමැති බවත් එලෙස අරමුණු කර නොමැති බවත් ඔබ සලකා පිළිගත යුතු අතර එබැවින් එය අදාළ නීති සහ රෙගුලාසි යටතේ අලෙවිකරණ සන්නිවේදනයක් ලෙස සලකනු ලැබේ. ඉහත සඳහන් තොරතුරු සලකා මෙතනින් ප්රවේශ විය හැකි, ස්වාධීන නොවන ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණ සහ අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම පිළිබඳ අපගේ දැනුම්දීම ඔබ කියවා තේරුම් ගෙන ඇති බව සහතික කර ගන්න.
