Russia and Ukraine launch rival overnight drone attacks, with most intercepted

Russia and Ukraine traded drone attacks overnight, with Russian officials saying on Saturday that Ukrainian strikes had killed one person in the Belgorod border region.

Russia said it had downed 47 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Ukraine reported it neutralised 24 drones fired by Moscow.

The Ukrainian air force said many missiles were fired from Belgorod, without specifying the number or type.

It said Russia had fired 28 drones at Ukraine, of which 24 were destroyed in the Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

In the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, Russian bombardments wounded four people, the head of the regional administration said.

The Russian defence ministry said the 47 Ukrainian drones taken down overnight included 17 in the southeastern Russian region of Krasnodar, 16 over the Azov Sea and 12 over the border region of Kursk.

A separate Ukrainian drone attack killed one person in the village of Ustinka in the Belgorod region, the regional governor said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian chief of staff said Kyiv’s forces had struck a fuel depot overnight near Rovenky in the eastern region of Lugansk, which is occupied by Russian forces.

It said the strike caused a fire at the depot, which it said supplied Russian forces, but did not provide details about the blaze.

Moscow did not confirm the attack.

Separately, Russian emergency services said they had brought a massive fire under control at the Feodosia oil terminal in Russian-annexed Crimea, which had burned for six days after being struck by Ukraine, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Russian forces have made advances across the front line in eastern Ukraine, targeting the country’s power grid as it faces its toughest winter since the full-scale Russian invasion started in February 2022.

(AFP)