News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe

"The enemy is deliberately trying to kill Ukrainian police officers who stand guard every day to protect the people and the state," the chief of Ukraine's National Police, Ivan Vyhivsky, said.

The plant, legally owned by Energoatom, once employed 159 licensed specialists — the only people authorized to directly operate the plant’s six nuclear reactors, which, prewar, provided over a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity.

While no casualties were reported in the Dnipro incident, the blast caused significant damage to the building's interior, office equipment, and a nearby vehicle.

However, Ukraine's state grid operator, Ukrenergo, said it received a notice from Slovakia's energy regulator about new flexible price conditions for emergency imports, Vitaliy Zaichenko, Ukrenergo's CEO, told the Kyiv Independent.

The conflict is seen as part of a broader struggle between the President's Office and the NABU, which says the authorities are trying to eliminate its independence.

"The attempt to impose the legitimization of peace agreements on Ukrainians through a referendum is unlawful and unacceptable, contradicts Ukraine's Constitution and laws, and threatens the national interests of our state," the statement read.

Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that despite successful offensive operations, the situation in the area remains "complicated."

"This is a setback and a message we didn't want to send today," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

Ukrainian forces struck four Russian military targets on the occupied Crimean Peninsula and in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Mykolaiv oblasts, the General Staff said on Feb. 23.

Drones operated by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) struck a "critical" Russian oil transportation hub, the Kaleykino oil pumping station, in the Republic of Tatarstan overnight on Feb. 23, an undisclosed source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent.

"We are in the process of preparing," the President's Office head Kyrylo Budanov said.

"The same thing (Vladimir) Putin is doing: he pays each person money for a contract. We want this as well, but we do not have enough funds," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.