Eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv orders evacuation of children

The eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, which has been particularly hard hit by Russian shelling, has ordered the forced evacuation of families with children from 47 villages near the border.

These are communities in the three districts of Bohodukhiv, Izyum and Kharkiv, the military governor of the region, Oleh Syniehubov, announced on Thursday via Telegram. However, the regional capital was not affected, he added.

The reason for the evacuation was the almost daily shelling of the towns by the Russian army. The governor promised that all those affected would receive the appropriate humanitarian and legal assistance.

The day before, a young girl was killed by Russian shelling in the village of Lyptsi in the Kharkiv district, just 10 kilometres from the Russian border.

Power infrastructure in the Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv, Lviv, Kiev and Zaporizhzhya was hit in renewed heavy Russian missile strikes overnight, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook on Thursday.

Damage was also reported in the Odessa region.

The country's largest electricity producer, DTEK, said on Telegram that two of its thermal power plants had been damaged.

South of Kiev, the Trypillia thermal power plant was destroyed, the state operator Centrenergo told Interfax Ukraine. None of the plant's employees were injured. A fire had engulfed the turbine house and extinguishing work was continuing. The plant is unable to generate electricity.

Following the third serious wave of attacks within a few days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to Western allies to supply Ukraine with more weapons. More than a dozen power plants have been destroyed or put out of action since mid-March.

"We need air defence systems and other defence assistance, not just turning a blind eye and having lengthy discussions," Zelensky wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He reiterated the point after a meeting in Vilnius on Thursday with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda.

"For us, air defence is the point number one, priority number one," Zelensky said.

Nausėda emphasized that Lithuania would do everything in its power to provide Ukraine with the necessary assistance. "It's not easy, but we are trying to do our best," he said.

Lithuania is one of Kiev's staunchest supporters and handed over drone defence equipment, power generators and folding cots to the Ukrainian army on Thursday.

At least 10 infrastructure facilities in and around Kharkiv were attacked with missiles overnight, according to Governor Syniehubov.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia deployed six of its Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. Of 40 attacking Iranian-made Shahed combat drones, 37 were intercepted, it said.

Ukraine has been fending off a full-scale Russian invasion for more than two years. Moscow has repeatedly attempted to paralyse the country's energy supply with airstrikes far into the Ukrainian hinterland.

Zelensky was in Vilnius to participate in a summit of states under the so-called Three Seas Initiative, which brings together 13 EU member states situated along the north-south axis between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas.

He signed a bilateral security agreement with his Latvian counterpart, Edgars Rinkēvičs, in which Latvia undertakes to provide Ukraine with annual military support worth 0.25% of its economic output.

Also on Thursday, the Ukrainian parliament passed a controversial military mobilization bill - following three months of debate - that requires men between the ages of 18 and 60 to carry their military passes on them and to have them updated within two months.

Zelensky recently introduced a law reducing the age for military reservists to 25 from previously 27. This allows men aged between 25 and 60 to be called up for service. Women are free to volunteer.

The Ukrainian armed forces have more than 1 million men and women under arms. Potential mobilization is around 5 million, according to the website texty.org.ua.

Despite a ban on foreign travel imposed on all those eligible for call-up, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have fled abroad using counterfeit documents since Russia launched its invasion in 2022.

The already dangerous situation at the Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya is getting worse, the UN's nuclear watchdog said on Thursday.

The drone attacks on the plant last weekend were "significantly increasing the risk of a nuclear accident," said Rafael Grossi, the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

At a special meeting of the IAEA board of governors, he urged military decision-makers and the international community to focus on de-escalating the hostilities around Europe's biggest nuclear plant.

Representatives of Moscow and Kiev, who were in attendance at the meeting, once again blamed each other for the attacks. Grossi, however, avoided apportioning blame.

Grossi announced that he would be travelling to the UN Security Council in New York next week to advocate for the safety of the facility.