Russia: Residents of two villages in the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders northeastern Ukraine, were evacuated on Friday, according to the region's governor, after a fire broke out at a munitions depot near the village of Timonovo.

According to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, there were no casualties in the fire late Thursday.

The fire broke out just days after another ammunition depot exploded on the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine's Black Sea, which Moscow captured in 2014.

Nine Russian warplanes were reportedly shot down at an airport in Crimea last week, highlighting both the vulnerability of the Russians and the ability of Ukrainians to launch attacks from behind their opponents' lines. The Ukrainian government has refrained from taking official responsibility.

However, following the explosions in Crimea, which Russia has attributed to "sabotage", President Volodymyr Zelensky signaled Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines.

While this was underway, Moscow and Kyiv continued to accuse each other of shelling the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, raising worldwide alarm about the potential devastation.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Petrushev on Friday accused the US of encouraging Ukraine's attacks on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

Shortly since the start of the invasion on 24 February, Russian forces have been in control of the facility.

In the event of a technological catastrophe, Petrushev predicted that its effects would be felt throughout the world. Washington, London and the people who helped him will take full responsibility for it.

According to Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia plant has reportedly been used by Russia to store troops and weapons, while airstrikes have also been launched against Ukrainian-controlled territory.

According to Ukrainian officials and military analysts, Moscow's military used the plant as a shield, knowing that the Ukrainians would not be prepared to retaliate.

Russia has denied the allegations, and in response, Ukraine has been accused of repeatedly shelling the plant.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Zelensky asked him to ensure that Russia removed weapons from the plant as "an important step towards world peace" after visiting Ukraine on Thursday.

Zelensky specifically requested that Russia remove all mines and similar (weapons) from that area and the situation quickly became less dangerous. Noting that it is a threat, Erdogan said.

Erdogan said he would discuss the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin and added that "Russia must play its part in this regard." Turkey has maintained close ties with both Ukraine and Russia.

Erdogan made the remarks to a group of Turkish journalists on his way back from a meeting with Zelensky and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Ukraine late on Thursday.

The leaders set up a visit by UN nuclear energy experts to Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, far from the front lines, to discuss expanding prisoner of war exchanges and help secure the nuclear power plant. met for

Guterres was projected Friday in the war-torn southern Ukrainian city of Odessa, after saying that Turkey and Ukraine were hoping to extend their historic grain export agreement with Russia.

According to Kyiv, 25 boats carrying about 600,000 tonnes of agricultural products have already departed from the three designated ports under the only significant agreement between Russia and Ukraine since the invasion of Moscow in February.

According to Zelensky, "there is a global need to increase the number of ships safely exporting Ukrainian food." He expressed this confidence to Erdogan and Guterres.

Zelensky continued, "Our state is ready and will remain the guarantor of global food security.

After Odessa, Guterres was scheduled to travel to Turkey to meet with the Joint Coordination Center, the organization in charge of managing the agreement.

In a display of force in a Russian territory bordering the European Union, Moscow claimed to have sent three MiG-31 fighter jets equipped with hypersonic missiles to its Baltic exclave in Kaliningrad.
According to the Moscow Defense Ministry, as an "additional measure of strategic deterrence", the new Kinjal air-to-surface missiles were deployed at the Chkalovsk airbase.

More than a thousand kilometers from Moscow, Kaliningrad is located between the EU countries of Poland and Lithuania.
According to Lithuania's Defense Minister Arvidas Anusukas, the missile's deployment does not alter the regional security environment or increase the threat level.

President Joe Biden's administration in the US was preparing to announce an additional US$800 million military aid to Ukraine earlier this Friday, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation.

Washington has provided billions of dollars in security aid to the Kyiv government.

UK says, Attacks in Ukraine's Kharkiv likely aimed at diverting troops

Fires, explosions reported at military targets in Russia and Crimea

Hypersonic missiles are stationed in Kaliningrad by Russia as a show of force