Russia, Ukraine exchange missile, drone attacks

Officials reported that Kyiv and Moscow conducted numerous drone and missile attacks overnight, resulting in the injury of several individuals in Ukraine and the destruction of a fuel reservoir site in a Russian border region.

All of this occurred on Friday.

In recent weeks, the two parties have intensified cross-border aerial assaults, with Kyiv targeting Russian energy facilities and Moscow launching retaliatory barrages.

Russia said it had downed 87 Ukrainian drones, of which 70 had targeted the southern Rostov region that houses the headquarters of its military operation against Kyiv.

The defence ministry said 70 drones were downed over Rostov, six each over Kursk and Voronezh, and two each over Volgograd and the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

The attacks sparked power cuts in several areas of the Rostov region, its governor Vasily Golubev said on social media.

In Voronezh, which borders Ukraine, a fuel reservoir was slightly damaged by falling debris, its regional governor Aleksander Gusev said.

Kyiv meanwhile said Ukrainian air defence systems had downed 24 out of 31 Russian drones and missiles fired overnight.

Six people were wounded in an attack on the frontline town of Selydove in the war-battered Donetsk region, its governor said.

Three people were wounded in a drone attack in the eastern Sumy region and several homes were damaged in the neighbouring Kharkiv region.

AFP