Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv has conducted its first test of a domestically produced ballistic missile as Russia unleashed a second day of deadly strikes on across Ukraine.
Zelenskiy also said at a news conference following a forum in Kyiv on August 27 that the war with Russia would eventually end in dialogue, but that Kyiv had to be in a strong position.
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Zelenskiy said he hoped to go to the United States in September to attend the UN General Assembly in New York and meet U.S. President Joe Biden and present a plan to end the war. Kyiv's incursion into Russia's Kursk region is part of that plan, but it also includes other steps on the economic and diplomatic fronts, he said.
"The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war," he said, adding that he wants it to be fair for Ukraine.
He did not elaborate on the next steps but said he would also discuss the plan with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate running for president, and probably also with former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.
His announcements came as Ukraine has been pleading with its Western allies to remove their ban on Kyiv using weapons they supplied to attack military targets deep inside Russia in order to prevent Moscow's forces from destroying civilian and energy infrastructure.
Ukraine has also said it is working on developing the Hrim-2 short-range ballistic missile system, which is designed to combine the features of a tactical missile system and a multiple rocket launcher.
Last weekend Zelenskiy also confirmed the existence of the domestically produced Palianytsia missile, which he called a "new class" of weapon for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy spoke hours after at least five people were killed and several more were wounded in a second massive drone and missile attack by Russia on Ukraine in as many days.
In Russia's Kursk, where fighting has been under way since August 6 when Ukrainian forces launched a shock incursion into Russian territory, Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear agency, visited the Kurchatov nuclear plant amid fears about the atomic installation's safety.
Grossi said after the visit that there was a risk of "nuclear incident" at the plant, where the situation was serious.
The Kurchatov plant is situated some 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border on the banks of the Seym River, where there has been heavy fighting for the past three weeks.
Separately, the Ukrainian military's top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said that his forces now control 1,294 square kilometers and 100 settlements in Kursk. He also said Ukrainian troops have taken a total of 594 Russian prisoners during the ongoing operation in Kursk.
As Russia launched another wave of strikes, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down a total of 60 drones and 5 missiles early on August 27.
The fresh wave of attacks prompted an all-out air-raid alert declared for the whole of Ukraine.
Ukrainian aviation expert Valeriy Romanenko told RFE/RL that the recent massive air strikes that Russia has launched are meant to exceed the capabilities of Ukraine's antiaircraft missile systems.
Rockets fly in a "bunch" and appear to air-defense systems be just one rocket, Romanenko said. The air-defense system launches a single rocket, but there is not one but five or six to shoot down.
Romanenko also pointed out that the Russians are using X-101 missiles, which have a range of almost 5,500 kilometers.
"The Russians take advantage of this and plan trajectories in such a way as to avoid the positions of antiaircraft missile systems as much as possible," he told Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL. They also use variations in the terrain where possible, programming the rockets to pass undetected behind hills and other topography and make many turns without losing the target.
In the latest wave of Russian missiles strikes, a hotel in Kryviy Rih in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk was hit. Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that a man and a woman had been killed and five people were wounded.
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Russian Missile Strike On Kryviy Rih Damages Hotel, Kills At Least 2
Local officials also said that two people had been killed in overnight Russian strikes in the southern region of Zaporizhzhya.
In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, a Russian missile killed one person and wounded another five, regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram.
In the Khmelnytskiy region, eight Russian drones were shot down, but a person was wounded during the attack, regional Governor Serhiy Tyurin said on Telegram.
Air defense systems shot down all 15 drones that attacked Kyiv, the administration of the Ukrainian capital said, adding that a fire broke out due to falling debris in a forest park in the city's Dnipro district.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor or Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, claimed early on August 27 that the situation was challenging but manageable in the area amid an attempted incursion by Ukrainian troops.
"According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the situation on the border remains difficult, but under control. Our military is carrying out planned work. I ask you to remain calm and trust only official sources of information," Gladkov wrote on Telegram. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Gladkov's claim.