Moscow: Moscow escalated its rhetoric after reporting on Tuesday that it had shot down five drones near the capital and claimed that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory would "not be possible" without support from the US and NATO.

While this was going on, Ukraine accused Russia of preparing "dangerous provocations" at the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and Russia responded by asserting that Kyiv intended to attack the facility, which is the largest in Europe.

Moscow claimed that the West had given Ukraine permission to conduct the drone attacks after initially denouncing what it called a "terrorist act."

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The Russian foreign ministry claimed that the West was "training drone operators and providing the necessary intelligence to commit such crimes," adding that "these attacks would not be possible without the help provided to the Kyiv regime by the US and its NATO allies."

It is the most recent in a string of recent drone attacks that Moscow has attributed to Kyiv, including attacks on the Kremlin and Russian towns close to the Ukrainian border.
The early morning attacks, according to the Russian military, did not cause any damage or casualties and resulted in the destruction of all five drones.

Services for emergencies cited by the staterun One of the drones was reportedly "neutralised" at Kubinka, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Vnukovo international airport, causing a brief disruption in air traffic, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Two drones were shot down over the Kremlin in early May, and later that month, drones struck Moscow high-rises.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing "dangerous provocations" at the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday.

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After speaking on the phone with the French president, he added, "We decided to keep the situation under maximum control together with the IAEA," the UN nuclear watchdog.
Residents were urged by the Ukrainian health ministry to be prepared for a "possible evacuation" in the event of an explosion at the location.
Since the start of the conflict, Russia and Ukraine have frequently accused one another of endangering the safety of the plant.
At the site, according to Kyiv, "objects resembling explosive devices were placed on the outer roof of the third and fourth reactors."
Zelensky stated in his evening speech that the plan was "perhaps to simulate the hit on the plant."
"Perhaps they have another plan. However, the world is aware of it," the Ukrainian leader said.

"Everyone in the world faces a threat from radiation."

Renat Karchaa, an adviser to Rosatom, the Russian nuclear agency, said on state television in Moscow: "On July 5, literally at night, in the dark, the Ukrainian army will try to attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."
He said Ukraine intended to employ "high-precision, long-range weapons" in addition to drones.

Russian forces reportedly attacked the town of Pervomaisky in the eastern Kharkiv region on Tuesday, injuring 43 people, including 12 children.
The 28,000-person town's parking lot outside a residential building was struck by the strike.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Kyiv's presidential office, distributed pictures of burned-out and wrecked vehicles.
Oleg Synegubov, the region's governor, posted a video from the scene, which showed smoke rising from burning cars.

Authorities also reported that two people had been killed as a result of Russian shelling in a residential area of the frontline city of Kherson in the south.
Early on Tuesday, Ukraine reported that Russia had fired three missiles and 22 Iranian "Shahed" attack drones at the Sumy, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

16 of the drones had been "destroyed" by its forces, it claimed.

An award-winning Russian investigative journalist was beaten by armed attackers in Chechnya and taken to the hospital, according to reports in her newspaper and from a rights organisation.
Famous journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov were travelling from the airport when they were attacked early on Tuesday.

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Her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, released a video of Milashina in the hospital with her hands bandaged and her head covered in a green dye that was used to target Kremlin critics.
She claimed that the assault, which involved holding a gun to her head, was related to her "professional activity in Chechnya."
Since years, Milashina has reported on human rights violations in the Ramzan Kadyrov-led republic of the Caucasus.
Around 200 people gathered in Kyiv on Tuesday for a memorial service for Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who passed away from her injuries after a Russian missile attack on a restaurant in eastern Ukraine.