Norway’s government said on Sunday that it will contribute approximately 7 billion Norwegian crowns (€594 million) of air defence systems to Ukraine.
“Together with Germany, we are now ensuring that Ukraine receives powerful air defence systems,” Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in the statement.
“Germany and Norway are working very closely together to support Ukraine in its fight to defend the country and protect the civilian population against Russian air attacks.”
Norway and Germany are funding two Patriot systems including missiles. In addition Norway is contributing to the procurement of air defence radar from German manufacturer Hensoldt and air defence systems from Kongsberg.
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Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russia’s power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said on Sunday.
A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 per cent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said.
There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant’s press service said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding area have not exceeded normal limits, it added.
The attacks on the nuclear plant create a threat to nuclear safety, Alexander Khinshtein, the regional acting governor, said on Sunday. “They are a threat to nuclear safety and a violation of all international conventions,” Khinshtein wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
About 10 Ukrainian drones were downed over the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s northern Leningrad region, with debris sparking fire at the Novatek-operated terminal – a huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and processing complex, regional governor said.
“Fire crews are working to contain a blaze at the terminal site in Ust-Luga. Fuel storage tanks have not been affected by the fire,” Alexander Drozdenko, governor of Russia’s Leningrad region where the Ust-Luga port is located, said on the Telegram messaging app. There were no injuries, he added.
According to Novatek, the Ust-Luga complex, which opened in 2013, processes gas condensate into light and heavy naphtha, jet fuel, fuel oil and gas oil, and enables the company to ship oil products as well as gas condensate to international markets.
Russian units destroyed a total of 95 Ukrainian drones overnight over 13 regions, including Leningrad and Samara, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, the defence ministry said.
Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, said flights were halted for hours on end at several Russian airports overnight, including at the Pulkovo airport in the Leningrad region.
Ukrainian drones also attacked an industrial enterprise in the southern Russian city of Syzran, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, governor of the Samara region where Syzran is located, posted on Telegram, adding there were no casualties.
He did not say what the targets were or whether there was any damage.
Russia fired 72 drones and decoys, along with a cruise missile, into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 48 drones were shot down or jammed.
The incidents occurred as Ukraine marked independence day, commemorating its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivered remarks in a video address from Kyiv’s Independence Square, emphasising the nation’s resolve.
“We are building a Ukraine that will have enough strength and power to live in security and peace,” Mr Zelenskiy said, calling for a “just peace”.
“What our future will be is up to us alone,” he said, in a nod to the US–Russia summit in Alaska earlier in August, which many feared would leave Ukrainian and European interests side-lined.
“And the world knows this. And the world respects this. It respects Ukraine. It perceives Ukraine as an equal,” he said.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged 146 prisoners of war from each side on Sunday after mediation by the United Arab Emirates, the Russian defence ministry and the Ukrainian president said.
The Russian ministry said all of the freed Russians were in Belarus receiving psychological and medical assistance.
Ukraine also returned to Moscow eight Russian citizens, residents of the Kursk region, the ministry said.
Mr Zelenskiy, writing on the Telegram messaging app, announced that the exchange had taken place, but gave no figures.
The Ukrainian president posted pictures of smiling returnees, saying most of them had been in captivity since 2022, when Russia invaded its smaller neighbour. He said a journalist taken prisoner a month after the invasion was among them.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney arrived in Kyiv on Sunday.
“On this Ukrainian Independence Day, and at this critical moment in their nation’s history, Canada is stepping up our support and our efforts towards a just and lasting peace for Ukraine,” Carney said in a post on social media platform X. – Reuters
