This week, Kyiv has banned public festivities celebrating independence from Soviet domination, a decision that has been replicated in other districts.
A US intelligence officer has warned that Russia plans to begin new assaults against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government installations shortly.
“Given Russia’s track record in Ukraine, we are concerned about the persistent threat that Russian strikes represent to civilians and civilian infrastructure,” the anonymous official added.
The warning prompted Kyiv to restrict public commemorations of freedom from Soviet domination this week.
And other regions have also prohibited public gatherings, like Kharkiv, where the mayor has extended the evening curfew till Thursday from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m.
In the port of Mykolaiv, which is close to Russian-held territory to the south, regional governor Vitaliy Kim stated that authorities planned to issue a precautionary order for inhabitants to work from home on Tuesday and Wednesday and to avoid gathering in large numbers.
Near the frontlines in the south of the country, Ukraine said that Russia fired rockets into various villages north and west of Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, which Russian forces captured early after their February invasion.
On the south bank of the Dnieper River, near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex, artillery and rocket fire have prompted calls for the area to be demilitarized.
Residents of the area fear that shells could strike one of the plant’s six reactors, with possibly catastrophic results.
In the meantime, Russia has blamed Ukrainian intelligence operatives for the weekend car bombing that killed the daughter of a prominent right-wing political thinker in Russia.
Darya Dugina, a 29-year-old pundit for a nationalist Russian television channel, was killed when a remote-controlled explosive device concealed in her car exploded on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night.
It was widely assumed that the intended target was her father, Alexander Dugin, a philosopher, author, and political theorist who staunchly supports Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send soldiers into Ukraine.
The Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, stated that the Ukrainian special services “planned and carried out” the murder of Ms. Dugina.
According to the FSB, Natalya Vovk, a Ukrainian national, committed the murder and subsequently escaped to Estonia.
According to the FSB, Ms. Vovk and her 12-year-old daughter arrived in Russia in July and rented an apartment in the same building as Ms. Dugina to follow her.
Before the murder, it was reported that she and her daughter attended the same nationalist festival as Mr. Dugin and his daughter.
