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Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their independence day, after fresh blasts hit Crimea and a missile wounded 12 civilians near a nuclear power plant.

In his nightly video address, Ukraine's president said his fellow countrymen must not allow Moscow to "spread despondency and fear" as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule.

"We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious," Zelenskiy said ahead of the anniversary on August 24, which also marks six months since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

The curfew in Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, would be extended for the entire day on August 24, regional governor Oleh Synehub said.

The northeastern city is regularly hit by Russian shelling and normally has a curfew from 10pm to 6am.

Also on Saturday, a Russian missile hit a residential area of a southern Ukrainian town not far from a nuclear power station, wounding 12 civilians.

That strike at the Pivdennoukrainsk (South Ukraine) nuclear station and fresh shelling near the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest such facility, prompted new fears of a nuclear accident during the war, Ukrainian officials said.

Zelenskiy in his address also referred obliquely to a series of explosions in recent days in Crimea, the Ukrainian territory seized and annexed by Russia during a 2014 incursion.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, but analysts have said some have been made possible by new equipment used by Ukrainian forces.

"You can literally feel Crimea in the air this year, that the occupation there is only temporary and that Ukraine is coming back," Zelenskiy said.

In the latest attack in Crimea, the Russian-appointed governor not recognised by the West said a drone had struck a building near the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on Saturday morning.

"A drone flew onto the roof. It was flying low," governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.

"It was downed right over the Fleet headquarters. It fell on the roof and burned up. The attack failed."

Ukrainian media reported explosions in nearby towns - including the resorts of Yevpatoriya, Olenivka and Zaozyornoye.

Following the strike near the South Ukraine power station, Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv region, said on Telegram that four children were among the wounded.

Private homes and a five-storey apartment block were damaged in Voznesensk, 30km from the plant, Ukraine's second largest.

The general prosecutor's office in Mykolaiv region, updating an earlier toll, said 12 civilians had been wounded.

State-run Energoatom, which manages all four Ukrainian nuclear energy generators, described the attack on Voznesensk as "another act of Russian nuclear terrorism".

"It is possible that this missile was aimed specifically at the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant, which the Russian military tried to seize back at the beginning of March," Energoatom said in a statement.

Russia did not immediately respond to the accusation and Reuters was unable to verify the situation in Voznesensk.

There were no reports of any damage to the South Ukraine plant.

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine traded fresh accusations of shelling around the Zaporizhzhia station, held by Russia since March.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-appointed official in the nearby town of Enerhodar, said Ukrainian forces had launched at least four strikes on the plant.

Yevhen Yetushenko, mayor of Ukrainian-controlled Nikopol on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, said Russian forces had repeatedly shelled the town.

Talks have been underway for more than a week to arrange for a visit to the plant by the UN nuclear power agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Ukrainian authorities have called on the United Nations and other international organisations to compel Russian forces to leave the Zaporizhzhia plant.

And in Mariupol, a town in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia after weeks of shelling, officials said the new Russian-appointed mayor, Konstantin Ivashchenko, had survived an assassination attempt.

"It didn't work," Petro Andryushchenko, an official of the ousted city council, said on Telegram.

"But this is only the beginning."

© RAW 2022

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged vigilance ahead of Wednesday's celebrations of 31 years of Ukraine's independence from Soviet rule as shells rained down near Europe's biggest nuclear plant and Russian forces struck in the south and east.

Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to "spread despondency and fear" before the August 24 events, which also mark six months since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday.

"We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious," Zelenskiy said.

In Russia, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine was killed in a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow on Saturday evening, Russian state investigators said on Sunday.

They said Darya Dugina, daughter of prominent ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed after a suspected explosive device detonated on the Toyota Land Cruiser she was travelling in, and they were considering "all versions" when it came to working out who was responsible.

The nightly curfew in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, regularly hit by Russian shelling, will be extended for the entire day on Wednesday, regional Governor Oleh Synehub told residents on the Telegram messaging app.

As the war that has killed thousands and forced millions to flee heads for its half-year mark, Ukrainian military and local officials reported more Russian strikes overnight on targets in the east and south of the country.

Ukraine's general staff said on Facebook early on Sunday that during the past 24 hours Russian forces had conducted several attempted assaults in Donbas. The eastern border region controlled in part by pro-Moscow separatists has been a prime target of Russia's campaign in the past months.

In the south, Russian forces conducted a successful assault on a village of Blahodatne at the border between Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. The city of Mykolaiv was hit with multiple S-300 missiles early on Sunday, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram.

The area on the Black Sea coast has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the past weeks.

To the northeast, the city of Nikopol, which lies across the Dnipro river from Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear plant, was shelled on five different occasions overnight, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.

He said 25 artillery shells hit the city, causing a fire at an industrial premises and cutting power to 3000 residents.

The fighting near the Russian-controlled plant and Saturday's missile strike at the southern Ukrainian town of Voznesensk, not far from the country's second-largest nuclear plant, revived fears of a nuclear accident.

The attack on Voznesensk was "another act of Russian nuclear terrorism", state-run Energoatom, which manages Ukraine's four nuclear energy generators, said in a statement.

Russia did not immediately respond to the accusation.

As Moscow and Ukraine continue to trade accusations of shelling around the Zaporizhzhia complex, the United Nations has called for a demilitarised zone around the plant and talks continued about a visit of its nuclear agency to the area.

Zelenskiy in his speech also referred obliquely to a recent series of explosions in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, but analysts have said at least some have been made possible by new equipment used by its forces.

"You can literally feel Crimea in the air this year, that the occupation there is only temporary and that Ukraine is coming back," Zelenskiy said.

Odesa and other ports in the region have been at the centre of an UN-brokered deal to allow Ukrainian grain exports to reach world markets again. On Sunday, Turkey's defence ministry reported four more food-laden ships left Ukrainian ports, bringing the total to 31.

© RAW 2022

Wests Tigers captain James Tamou says his "heart dropped" when he realised a verbal attack on referee Ben Cummins may have ended his NRL career.

Late in the Tigers' record-breaking 72-6 loss to the Sydney Roosters, Tamou knocked on and conceded a penalty for throwing the ball away in self-admonishment.

He turned his frustrations on Cummins and was sin-binned for dissent in the 79th minute but had his punishment upgraded to a sending-off for calling the referee "f****** incompetent" as he left the field.

Usually calm and collected, the veteran's brain snap was indicative of how frustrating a night it was for the Tigers, who left the SCG having suffered their heftiest defeat in joint-venture history.

"I apologise for my actions towards Ben Cummins," a forlorn Tamou told reporters.

"(The referees) do a terrific job. The frustration got the better of me."

Tamou is set to face suspension and could be referred directly to the NRL judiciary on Sunday morning without having the option of entering a plea.

Melbourne hooker Brandon Smith was referred for calling referee Adam Gee a "cheating bastard" in July, and keen on deterring players from committing similar offences, the judiciary banned him for four weeks.

A two-week ban would rub Tamou out for the remainder of the season but the 300-game prop forward said he would accept any punishment handed down.

"I'll wear the criticism all week. I've got to be accountable for my actions," he said.

"I've let everyone down. I've let myself down. I'm embarrassed.

"I've got four kids at home and that's how they're going to see that their dad acts."

Tamou's contract runs out at the end of the year and he will be 34 by the time the 2023 season begins.

While he is in negotiations to extend his career by at least another year, Tamou said the possibility of his retiring on such inauspicious terms was difficult to swallow.

"I didn't think of that until someone just mentioned it. My heart dropped," he said.

"It would be a tough way to go out of a game that has given me a lot.

"It'd be great to go around again but I'm also a bit of a pessimist. If the time comes to hang up the boots, I'll be a realist and go out and find a job."

Post-match press conferences are not mandatory for NRL captains but Tigers interim coach Brett Kimmorley applauded Tamou for choosing to front the media.

"Jimmy was the first one to put his hand up and say, 'I want to come and do the press conference' and make himself accountable," he said.

"That's says more about the stature of the man than 300 games."

Roosters captain James Tedesco has played for NSW in the State of Origin alongside Tamou and said he felt for his Tigers counterpart, who has led the playing group through a difficult year.

In 2022, the Tigers have endured the mid-season dismissal of coach Michael Maguire, long-term injuries to key players Adam Doueihi, Luke Brooks and Jackson Hastings and will finish the season with their worst win-loss record as a joint venture.

They can likely only avoid their first wooden spoon by winning one of their remaining two games.

"It's probably just a build-up of frustration over the year for Jimmy," Tedesco said of Tamou's spray.

"A lot of (the Tigers) were pretty frustrated with the scoreline and how they were playing."

© AAP 2022