JAKARTA - Russia fired missiles and drones at Ukraine-controlled Mykolaiv on Sunday, destroying an apartment block in the shipbuilding town near the front, as pressure from Ukraine escalated.
Mykolaiv is located approximately 35 km (22 miles) northwest of the frontline to occupy Kherson, the southern region where Russia has ordered 60,000 people to flee the Ukrainian retaliation.
A Russian missile strike on Sunday swept the floor over an apartment block in Mykolaiv, sending bullet fragments and debris across the plaza and into neighboring buildings, destroying windows and cracked walls. The car was destroyed under debris, but no casualties were recorded.
"After the first explosion, I tried to get out, but the door was jammed. After a minute or two, there was a second loud explosion. Our door was thrown into the corridor," said Oleksandr Mezinov, 50, who was awakened from his bed by an explosion.
Ukraine shot down 14 Russian "kamikaze" drones aboard Mykolaiv overnight, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram. The drone was designed to explode and destroy Ukraine's energy infrastructure this month.
Ukraine says Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones. However, Tehran denies supplying drones to Moscow - a statement Washington says is untrue.
Kim said Russia also attacked with an S-300 missile, one of which hit a five-story apartment building.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu discussed "a rapidly deteriorating situation" in talks with French, British, and Turkish counterparts, the ministry said.
He also spoke by telephone with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for the second time in three days. About this call, the Pentagon said Austin told Shoigu he "rejected any pretext for Russia's escalation."
Without providing evidence, Shoigu said Ukraine could increase by using a "dried bomb", a conventional explosive mixed with radioactive material. Meanwhile, Ukraine does not have a nuclear weapon.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba dismissed the allegations, calling them "absurd" and "dangerous". He added: "Russia often accuses others of what they plan to do themselves."
The White House National Security Council also rejected Shoigu's claim. "The world will see through any attempt to use these allegations as an excuse for escalation," said a statement from the Council.
Meanwhile, in his evening video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said only Russia was capable of using nuclear weapons in Europe.
"Everyone understands completely. They understand who the source of all the dirty things that can be imagined in this war," President Zelensky said.
Ukraine's progress in recent weeks around Kherson and in the northeast of the country has been met with increasing Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure, which has destroyed about 40 percent of Ukraine's energy supply systems ahead of winter.
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