Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv denies attacking Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant with drone

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington would “find a way” to help Ukraine defend itself after Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for more Patriot air defence missiles amid escalating Russian attacks.

Speaking at the US embassy in Singapore on Friday, Hegseth praised European countries for increasing defence spending and military support for Kyiv. “We want them to be able to defend, and we’ll find a way to make sure we can help them do that,” he told reporters.

Hegseth said the US was ramping up production of “important munitions” and helping European allies increase support for Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Kyiv faces worsening shortages of anti-ballistic missile systems as Russia escalates long-range drone and missile strikes.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv received a new IRIS-T air-defence launcher from Germany on Saturday.

Announcing the delivery on Telegram on Sunday, Zelensky thanked Berlin for its support but said Ukraine still needed additional air-defence ammunition. “We also need missiles for air defence systems to have sufficient capabilities to repel Russian attacks,” he said.

Germany is one of Ukraine’s leading suppliers of air-defence systems and has committed to a long-term programme of IRIS-T deliveries.

Russian-installed authorities in occupied Crimea have announced fuel vouchers and limits on petrol sales after weeks of Ukrainian strikes on supply routes and oil infrastructure.

Sergey Aksyonov, the Moscow-backed head of Crimea, said from Saturday that sales of 95-octane petrol at the peninsula’s two largest fuel chains would be available only through a voucher system, according to The Kyiv Independent.

Residents will also be restricted to purchasing no more than 20 litres of 92-octane fuel per vehicle. Aksyonov said fuel supplies would be prioritised for public and social transport and claimed shortages would stabilise within 30 days.

Ukraine has intensified strikes on fuel depots, rail links, and logistics infrastructure connecting occupied Crimea to Russian-controlled territory in recent months.

Russian authorities said Ukrainian drones struck energy and industrial targets across several regions overnight into Sunday, with damage reported in Saratov, Kirov, Belgorod, Rostov and Voronezh.

Saratov governor Roman Busargin said “civil infrastructure” had been damaged in the Volga region, which hosts several oil refineries and has faced repeated Ukrainian attacks in recent months. In the Kirov region, more than 1,300km from Ukrainian-held territory, governor Alexander Sokolov said drones hit a facility in the Urzhumsky district.

Governors in Belgorod, Rostov and Voronezh also reported strikes, while Belgorod authorities said three civilians were injured.

In occupied Crimea, Moscow-backed governor Sergei Aksyonov announced restrictions on petrol sales following continued Ukrainian attacks on fuel infrastructure near the peninsula.

Over four years ago, Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed longtime ally Russia to use his territory to invade Ukraine. Now officials in Kyiv are warning that Lukashenko could again allow his land to serve as a launchpad for more attacks by the Kremlin’s forces.

While Belarus has not contributed troops to battle, Lukashenko has backed President Vladimir Putin’s war effort by hosting Russia’s nuclear weapons and military infrastructure, as well as producing components for Moscow’s military industries. Earlier this month, the countries held joint drills of nuclear forces involving Russian weapons deployed in Belarus.

Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom said on Saturday that a Ukrainian drone struck the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

There was no damage to key equipment, but the attack left a hole in the wall of a turbine hall, Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev said. He was quoted as saying by Russian state media that the fact that the drone was controlled via fiber optics “completely rules out the possibility of an accidental impact.”

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the incident.

The plant is in an area under Russian control since early in Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly expressed alarm about the nuclear plant, Europe’s biggest.