Ukraine-Russia war live: Moscow launches 80 drones amid warnings Putin planning airstrikes on nuclear sites

Kyiv asks UN nuclear watchdog to establish permanent monitoring missions at its nuclear plants

Related: Ukraine’s attack is only way to force Russia to negotiating table, Zelensky aide says

Vladimir Putin’s troops launched 80 attack drones at Ukraine overnight as Kyiv warned Russia was planning airstrikes on the country’s nuclear sites.

Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed 71 of the drones while six of them were scrambled with electronic warfare, Kyiv said.

It comes as Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiha warned Moscow was planning strikes on Ukraine’s nuclear facilities before the winter.

“According to Ukrainian intelligence, the Kremlin is preparing strikes on Ukrainian nuclear energy critical objects ahead of winter,” Mr Sybiha wrote on X.

He urged the International Atomic Energy Agency and Ukraine’s allies to establish permanent monitoring missions at the country’s nuclear plants.

“This is preparation for a possible nuclear disaster scenario. Russia is a terrorist,” Andriy Yermak, president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff wrote on Telegram.

Meanwhile, at least 12 people were injured after Russian forces struck a multistorey apartment building in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Saturday evening, officials said.

On the other side of the border, Russia evacuated over 1,000 people from Krasnodar in the wake of a Ukrainian drone attack on Saturday.

Key Points

• Ukraine’s air defence units destroy 71 Russian drones overnight
• Russia planning strikes on Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, says Kyiv
• Over 1000 people evacuated in Russia’s Krasnodar
• Russian missile hits Kharkiv apartment, 12 injured
• Zelensky says end of war with Russia depends on allies’ resolve

[21 September 2024 05:25 · Arpan Rai]

Suspected Trump assassination plotter travelled to Ukraine in 2022

The erratic life of a struggling roofing contractor suspected of trying to shoot Donald Trump swerved from bounced checks to a weapon felony conviction and a quixotic plan to help Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion, before culminating in what appears to be a foiled assassination plot.

Ryan Routh, 58, was charged with two gun-related crimes in a federal court in Florida on Monday, a day after he was spotted with a rifle hiding in shrubbery on the property line of Trump’s golf course. More charges are expected.

Reuters found profiles on X, Facebook and LinkedIn for a Ryan Routh, and public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed hours after the shooting.

The three accounts bearing Routh’s name showed he supported Ukraine in its war against Russia.

On 21 April, Routh directed an X message to Elon Musk, writing: “I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putins Black sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please.”

The New York Times reported it had interviewed Routh in 2023 for an article about Americans who were volunteering to help the Ukraine war effort. Routh told the Times he travelled to Ukraine, spent several months there in 2022 and was trying to recruit Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine.

One current and another former US volunteer serving with the foreign legion of Ukraine’s army said they recalled Routh and believed that he spent time in the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk. Both of them said he exhibited odd behaviour.