A series of explosions rocked the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv early Saturday, sending towering plumes of illuminated smoke into the sky and triggering a series of secondary explosions.

There were no immediate reports of casualties

The blasts came hours after Russia concentrated attacks in its increasingly troubled invasion of Ukraine on areas it illegally annexed, while the death toll from earlier missile strikes on apartment buildings in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia rose to 14.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that the early-morning explosions were the result of missile strikes that hit one of the city's medical institutions, a nonresidential building and other spots.

In a rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his conduct of Europe's worst armed conflict since World War II, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to human rights organizations in his country and Ukraine, and to an activist jailed in Russia's ally Belarus.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, the committee's chair, said the honor went to “three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence."

Putin this week illegally claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory, including the Zaporizhzhia region that is home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant, whose reactors were shut down last month.

Fighting near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has alarmed the U.N.'s atomic energy watchdog, which on Friday doubled to four the number of its inspectors monitoring plant safeguards. An accident there could release 10 times more potentially lethal radiation than the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine 36 years ago, Ukrainian Environmental Protection Minister Ruslan Strilets said Friday.

“The situation with the occupation, shelling, and mining of the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants by Russian troops is causing consequences that will have a global character,” Strilets told The Associated Press.

The U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported more trouble at the plant, saying Friday on Twitter that external power had again been cut off to one of Zaporizhzhia's shutdown reactors, necessitating the use of emergency backup diesel generators to run safety systems.

The city of Zaporizhzhia is located 53 kilometers (33 miles) away from the nuclear plant as a crow flies and remains under Ukrainian control. To cement Russia's claim to the region, Russian forces bombarded the city with S-300 missiles on Thursday, with more attacks reported Friday.

Ukrainian authorities said the death toll from the strikes on apartment buildings rose to 14 on Friday, while 12 people wounded in the bombardment remained hospitalized.

Missiles also struck the city overnight, wounding one person, Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said. Russia also used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones there for the first time and damaged two infrastructure facilities, he said.

With its army losing ground to a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and east, Russia has deployed unmanned, disposable Iranian-made drones that are cheaper and less sophisticated than missiles but still can damage ground targets.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia's use of the explosives-packed drones was unlikely to affect the course of the war.

“They have used many drones against civilian targets in rear areas, likely hoping to generate nonlinear effects through terror. Such efforts are not succeeding,” analysts at the think tank wrote.

In other Moscow-annexed areas, Russia's Defense Ministry reported Friday that its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near the city of Lyman and retaken three villages elsewhere in the eastern Donetsk region. The ministry also claimed that Russian forces had prevented Ukrainian troops from advancing on several villages in the southern Kherson region.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Friday that this week alone, his military has recaptured 776 square kilometers (300 square miles) of territory in the east and 29 settlements, including six in the Luhansk region, which Putin has annexed. In total, Ukrainian forces have liberated 2,434 square kilometers (940 square miles) of land and 96 settlements since the beginning of its counteroffensive, he said.

In Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian troops shelled the city of Nikopol overnight, killing one person, wounding another and damaging buildings, natural gas pipelines and electricity systems, the governor reported. Nikopol lies along the Dnieper River across from Russian-held territory near the nuclear power plant. The city has been shelled frequently for weeks.

The trail of Russia’s devastation and death from areas where its troops retreated became clearer Friday. A report by Ukrainian First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Yevhen Yenin revealed that 530 bodies of civilians have been found in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region since Sept. 7.

The residents killed during the Russian occupation included 257 men, 225 women and 19 children, with 29 people unidentified, Yenin said. Most of the bodies were found in a previously disclosed mass grave in the city of Izium.

According to Yenin, the recovered bodies bore signs of gunshots, explosions and torture. Some people had ropes around their necks, hands tied behind their back, bullet wounds to their knees and broken ribs.

Authorities have identified 22 torture sites in parts of the Kharkiv region that Ukrainian forces recently liberated, said Serhiy Bolvinov, a regional police official.

In recently recaptured Lyman, workers found 200 individual graves and a mass grave with an unknown number of victims, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko reported on Telegram. In Sviatohirsk, 24 kilometers (15 miles) from Lyman, 21 bodies of civilians were reburied.

Russian military equipment and weapons, meanwhile, is getting into Ukrainian hands. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Friday that Ukrainian forces have captured at least 440 tanks and about 650 armored vehicles since the Russian invasion started Feb. 24.

“The failure of Russian crews to destroy intact equipment before withdrawing or surrendering highlights their poor state of training and low levels of battle discipline,” the British ministry said. “With Russian formations under severe strain in several sectors and increasingly demoralized troops, Russia will likely continue to lose heavy weaponry.”

Putin ordered a partial mobilization of Russian army reservists last month to reinforce manpower on the front lines in Ukraine. Mistakes have dogged the military call-up, however, and tens of thousands of men have fled Russia, unwilling to fight Putin's war.

That has left Russia desperate for troop reinforcements. The Ukrainian military said Friday that 500 former criminals have been mobilized to reinforce Russian ranks in the eastern Donetsk region, where Ukrainian forces have retaken territory. Law enforcement officers are commanding the new units, the military said.

Russia's state news agency Tass reported Friday that a court in the Russian city of Penza had dismissed the first case against a Russian man called up to serve but who refused. The 32-year-old man's lawyers had argued that the law under which he was charged applies only to conscription evaders, not those subject to the partial mobilization.

In another sign of trouble, reports have surfaced of poor training and few supplies for the new Russian troops. At least two Russian cities — St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod — announced Friday they were canceling their Russian New Year's and Christmas celebrations and redirecting that money to buy supplies for Russian troops.

Under increasing pressure from his own supporters as well as critics, Putin continued to reshuffle his military’s leadership, replacing the commander of Russia’s eastern military district.

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Associated Press journalists Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Vasilisa Stepanenko and Francisco Seco in Kharkiv contributed to this report.

NEWPORT, Ky. — When Jeff Zemanek moved to Newport's Clifton neighborhood, he figured there would be some level of noise, given the city's urban density. But he wasn't prepared for one particular sound that often drowns out all the rest.

"It scares the heck out of you," he said, referring to what he and other neighbors say is the frequent "unavoidable" booming of explosions -- sometimes three in a single day -- coming from a nearby scrap metal plant that dismantles, demolishes and crushes metal items, including cars.

Zemanek lives uphill from River Metal Recycling on Licking Pike, which is now the defendant in a class-action lawsuit claiming the plant is being negligent in allowing the explosions to occur and has created safety hazards and caused nearby property values to drop.

The explosions are caused when an item being crushed contains gasoline that had not been emptied beforehand, such as the fuel tank in a motor vehicle.

Provided

"We had an explosion a couple weeks ago where that's how we were woken up," Zemanek said.

The plant "failed to exercise ordinary care to assure that gasoline explosions do not occur," claims the lawsuit, which began in Campbell County Circuit Court before being bumped to federal court and then back to the county again. The explosions "create noise that jeopardizes and degrades the quality of life," the suit reads.

City Manager Tom Fromme said his staff is monitoring the situation. It's a problem the city has known about for decades and is actively working on an ordinance to address.

"Over the past 40 years, the number of explosions varies based on the amount of scrap that is being processed on the site," he said. "We continue to monitor them to determine if any violations of existing ordinances occur. In the event a violation happens, a citation would be issued."

Residents like Amanda Smith say they're frustrated.

"It kind of sideswipes you," she told WCPO. "And some of them, it really kind of makes you feel like your windows are going to blow out, something is going to collapse."

Zemanek and Smith are part of a committee working with the city to bring a stop to the explosions and address other concerns with the plant, such as air pollution and property damage.

Mariel Carbone (WCPO)

"I've noticed in new construction I've had in my home where the drywall has shifted and things in a short period of time," Smith said.

"The other thing is...the air that we're breathing," Zemanek said. "Yesterday, I smelled plastic almost all day long after the explosion."

And, both neighbors agree, there's a psychological impact, as well.

"When you're woken straight up out of bed at 6:40, 6:38, 6:45, 7 o'clock in the morning, haven't even had a cup of coffee, it brings extreme anxiety to me. And I'm not a person with anxiety," Smith said.

Zemanek agreed, saying no matter how many times he's heard it before, he "jump(s) out of bed, and then you're shaking for a few minutes." The explosions have become something that's just not avoidable.

"Going through this and then trying to continue your day and get into your work, and it's really hard to concentrate. When is the next one going to come?"

In the end, Zemanek and Smith would be happy if the explosions just weren't so loud.

"I'd love to seem them move... but, if nothing else...conceal the shredder so it's enclosed, and they don't get the open-air compression that you get here," Zemanek said. "I think they could put up some big barrier walls to not only camouflage it, because it's an eyesore, but also for containment of sound, too."

River Metals Recycling general manager Neal Coulardot provided WCPO a written statement Wednesday afternoon in which he disputed the claim that the explosions present a safety or environmental hazard:

"A couple of the neighbors are suing River Metals and we do not comment on active litigation. However, we would like to state that River Metals has been recycling metals at its Newport/Wilder location for decades and is committed to be a good neighbor. In the recycling of metals there can be occasional combustion events. River Metals has a formal plan to keep these at a minimum. These events do not cause safety or environmental harm. River Metals is in full compliance with laws, regulations and permits for the facility. In fact, it is a national leader in recycling and is one of the few recycling facilities in Kentucky to earn the OSHA SHARP certification that recognizes excellence in occupational safety and health."

Oral arguments were heard in Campbell County Circuit Court last month. Since then, the judge has not filed any orders in the case.

NEWPORT, Ky. — Loud explosions caused by shredding at a local scrap metal plant have rocked a Newport neighborhood for years, but now the issue is getting more attention.

WCPO has reported on explosions at River Metals Recycling before, which happen when a car that's shredded has gasoline or a propane tank left in it. The combustion shakes up nearby homes on Licking Pike, and some residents have said they hear up to three explosions a day.

MORE: Newport residents fighting back against explosive neighbor

But it’s not just an issue in Northern Kentucky. Tony Ray, who lives in Louisville’s Clifton Heights neighborhood near another RMR location, described similar explosions near his home as “a small earthquake” that shake his windows.

“They're pretty violent at times. They're very concerning. And again, when it's to your home, your biggest asset, it's very unsettling,” he said.

Kaye Thompson, who also lives in Clifton Heights, worries about how the explosions impact her home’s foundation.

“I've observed some cracks on the walls; we have plaster walls,” she said.

Ray, Thompson and neighbor Dave Vislisel are leading the charge in Louisville to get the explosions to stop.

“It’s been going on since I think about 2013, 2014, 2015, since River Metals settled in here," said Vislisel. "Kaye and I have met a couple of times with the manager of the plant and people who came down from Cincinnati to say, 'We're doing everything we can.'"

That includes RMR building a wall to separate the shredder and contain the sound.

The company also submitted a “combustion incident reduction plan” to the city of Louisville in 2017. In that plan, RMR committed to increased employee training, better inspections and more education for its scrap suppliers. In their report, RMR also noted it would be unrealistic to think all explosions could be eliminated.

Neighbors said the effort has not solved the problem.

“It's obvious they're not following their processes,” Ray said. “The 2017 report said they were going to do these things, A, B and C. Obviously, they have not done it.”

Kentucky State Representative Rachel Roberts toured RMR’s Newport facility for Earth Day. She described the area as “a place where suburban ideals and urban realities butt heads." That creates a challenging problem, she said.

“It's a business that's acting in good faith in their purview, that's meeting all of its obligations with the EPA, with OSHA, paying their taxes, all of those things,” Roberts said. “So there's no real mechanism right now to penalize them for operating their business within the parameters that they're allowed to operate their business in.”

When she toured the facility Thursday, she told WCPO that RMR does “vastly important” recycling work in the community, adding that the company is one of the largest contributors to local payroll taxes and employs about 50 people.

RMR's parent company, Nucor, just announced a major expansion in Gallatin County, thanks to a multi-million-dollar state tax break, bringing more jobs to Northern Kentucky.

MORE: Gallatin Co. steel plant's expansion will mean more than just new jobs for the region

“We're all, in good faith, working to find solutions to help us keep a major employer in our district... and make sure the quality of life people except when they move to Newport… is maintained,” Roberts said.

There are a number of solutions to look into, and Roberts suggested a range of options from tax incentives for affected residents to issuing fines for violations if applicable.

“So yes, there are solutions,” she said. “Are any of them overnight solutions? No. These are complicated problems that have been going on for years.”

"So the solution has to be a negotiation between all of the invested parties. And from everyone I talked to, everyone is really invested in finding a solution here," she continued.

Both those affected -- whether near or far -- want more than a good-faith effort. They want change.

“Number one, it would just be to have the explosions stop,” Ray said. “If they can't stop them, maybe they should move.”

In a statement last month, RMR General Manager Neal Coulardot told WCPO, "In the recycling of metals there can be occasional combustion events. River Metals has a formal plan to keep these at a minimum. These events do not cause safety or environmental harm."