US's anti-Russia policy driving global security to brink of WWIII, says North Korea

Good morning and welcome to our blog covering developments in the Russia-Ukraine war as Ukraine says has it repelled a Russian missile attack on Kyiv.

Agence France-Presse reports that air raid sirens sounded in the Ukrainian capital before dawn on Sunday.

“This is the third ballistic missile attack on the capital in August with a clear interval of six days between each attack,” the Kyiv city military administration posted on Telegram after the early morning barrage.

Simultaneous to the missile attack, drones were spotted heading to Kyiv.

“All enemy drones were destroyed far outside the city,” it added.

No damage or casualties were reported from the attack, which the administration said had “most likely used North Korean ballistic missiles of the KN-23 type”.

The United States and Seoul have accused North Korea of providing ammunition and missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Kyiv has repeatedly called for its allies in the west to provide more air-defence systems.

Last weekend, a 35-year-old man and his four-year-old son were killed in an overnight Russian missile attack near Kyiv. Three other people were seriously injured.

Concern has deepened after Moscow vowed a “tough response” to the recent Ukrainian advance into the Russian territory of Kursk.

In other developments:

• The UN’s nuclear watchdog warned on Saturday that the safety situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “deteriorating” after a nearby drone strike. Earlier on Saturday, Russia accused Ukraine of dropping an explosive charge on a road near the occupied plant in southern Ukraine.

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy says his forces are “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive. He said his army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, had reported that Ukrainian troops continued their advance and also took more Russian servicemen as prisoners.

• Ukrainian drones attacked an oil storage facility in Russia’s southern Rostov region early Sunday morning, sparking a large fuel fire, the local governor said. Videos published on social media showed thick black smoke and bursts of flames coming from the site of the blaze, which the governor said was in the town of Proletarsk. There were no reported injuries.