On Monday night, the EU will discuss increasing sanctions against Russia amid accusations that Moscow uses the largest nuclear power station on the planet to stockpile weapons and fire missiles into southern Ukraine.
According to Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine's nuclear agency, the situation at the seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear station is "very severe" and the Russians have deployed missile launchers and exploited the facilities to shell the Dnipro region.
Valentyn Reznichenko, regional governor, described the late Saturday attack on residential neighborhoods as "a rain of fire."
In the riverbank city of Nikopol, "Rescuers recovered two deceased victims under the ruins," he reported.
The EU's foreign ministers are considering prohibiting the purchase of gold from Russia, which would be in line with sanctions already put in place by G7 allies, as the dispute rages on and increasingly threatens to cause a worldwide oil and food crisis.
The EU's blacklist might also be expanded to include more Russian individuals. Following the transmission of the suggested actions, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, declared that "Moscow must continue to pay a hefty price for its aggression."
A senior EU official predicts that although first sanctions negotiations will take place in Brussels on Monday, no decision will be made that day.
Moscow declared on Saturday that it would intensify its military operations more than 20 weeks after invading its neighbor, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people and the eviction of millions of Ukrainians. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu "issued the appropriate directives to significantly enhance" military pressure.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of the country, has previously charged that Russia is trying to cause as much harm as possible but vowed that Ukraine would "endure."
In his speech on Saturday night, Mr. Zelensky claimed that Ukraine had "withstood Russia's terrible blows," recovered part of the territory it had lost since the war began, and would soon retake additional area that had been captured.
"We'll persevere. We'll triumph, he assured them, and "rebuild our lives."
While the majority of the fighting has continued to take place in the northeast, close to Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv, the bombardments have recently been swift and intense.
Three people were murdered and a residential building and a nearby school were destroyed by a weekend Russian missile attack in the village of Chuguiv.
"Why me? Just because I was born in Ukraine? Raiysa Kuval, a local, sat on the debris and questioned. "They tore apart mother from father, child from mother, and brother from sister as we were quietly departing," the speaker said. It's intolerable.
The Group of 20 major economies' finance ministers met for two days to discuss ways to address the food and energy problems brought on by the conflict, but the meeting ended without issuing a joint statement on Saturday in Indonesia.
It is anticipated that the inability to issue a joint statement will impede coordinated efforts to combat growing inflation and food shortages that might put millions of people in developing countries at risk of going hungry. Additionally, it happened a week after Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, left the G20 summit in Bali due to criticism of Moscow.
Canada criticized Moscow for even attending the summit, calling it "absurd." Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said from Bali that inviting Russia to the meeting would be like inviting an arsonist.
A war of attrition has replaced grueling trench combat and artillery duel in the troubled Donbas region.
After seizing control of sister cities Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, which are located approximately 30 kilometers to the east of Siversk, Moscow-backed rebels claimed on Friday that Siversk was their next target.
Daniil Versonov, a representative of the Donetsk separatists, claimed that small groups of rebel fighters were "cleaning" Siversk's eastern neighborhoods.
The number of fatalities from missile attacks in the center city of Vinnytsia, hundreds of kilometers from the frontline, rose to 24 on Saturday. According to Sergei Borzov, the governor of the Vinnytsia region, "unfortunately, one woman died in hospital today; she was 85% burned," adding that 68 people, including four children, were still undergoing treatment.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had targeted a gathering in Vinnytsia of the "leadership of the Ukrainian Air Force with representatives of foreign arms suppliers" in the face of widespread outrage.
A senior US defense official, however, said that he had "no indication" that a military target was nearby while speaking on the condition of anonymity.