School and nuclear facility hit in latest wave of Russian strikes

Ukraine has been bombarded with high-speed 'jet-powered' attack drones, with a nuclear facility and a school hit among Russia's latest round of strikes. 

The grounds of a nuclear research facility in Kyiv were hit on Wednesday, local time, causing a fire but leaving the facility's test reactor undamaged, Ukraine's nuclear safety watchdog said.

"The fire that resulted from the attack was quickly extinguished. There were no injuries," the regulator said in a statement Thursday, local time, adding that the reactor was not damaged and had been shut down since 2022.

Elsewhere in the capital, Russian drone strikes tore through a school during an air-assault on Thursday morning, local time.  

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said children had been in the shelter at the moment of the strike, which sparked a fire. 

He reported no injuries.

The State Emergency Service released images of rescue workers picking through debris and dousing the charred building, whose windows were shattered.

The morning attack came amid intensifying, around-the-clock strikes on Kyiv and other cities with jet-powered drones which Ukraine's military has struggled to shoot down.

Earlier on Thursday, one person was wounded in a Russian air attack on a business centre in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, regional officials said.

City administration chief Serhiy Lysak said infrastructure had been damaged but gave no further details.

Odesa and the surrounding region have been a frequent target of attacks aimed partly at choking Kyiv's export revenues.

Russia, which says it strikes only military targets, reported that it had attacked a data centre in Odesa and a cargo vessel in the nearby port of Chornomorsk.

Two Russian drones hit the support section of the Southern Bridge that connects eastern and western Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital's mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

"At the moment, metro services and ground public transport across the bridge have been stopped,"

he said.

Russia has intensified its campaign of drone and missile strikes against Kyiv in recent months, putting the capital on a near-constant state of alert against attacks.

Footage shared on Telegram showed an explosion near one of the columns of the cable-stayed bridge, which carries both road traffic and trains from the Kyiv Metro.

One showed a column of thick black smoke rising into the air from the bridge, a key transport artery which crosses the Dnipro river dividing the city.

AFP charges Russian Australian man

Mr Klitschko said specialists were inspecting the bridge to assess the structural damage.

Ukraine's air force said the number of Russian drone strikes on the country increased in September, with 3,177 attacks up to September 29. In August, 2,850 were recorded.

Russia has been using jet-powered attack drones that move at high speed and are harder to shoot down than the traditional models, which are based on Iranian Shaheds.

Ukraine has long feared a Russian attack on the bridges over the Dnipro, which are a lifeline for its estimated three million residents.

On Wednesday, Sergiy "Flash" Beskrestnov, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia had begun using a jet-powered drone designed to cut electricity pylons and steel bridge structures.

"I believe that the enemy is planning to attack critical high-voltage power transmission lines," he wrote on Telegram.

Russia also said on Wednesday that it had targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, in what Kyiv said was the opening salvo of an expected campaign designed to cut power and heating in the coming winter.