KYIV: Russia and Ukraine said they downed dozens of drones overnight, as both launched overnight attacks on each other’s targets behind the stretched frontlines.
Drones – both attack craft packed with explosives and those with advanced cameras for reconnaissance – have been used extensively throughout the two-year war.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 37 Iranian-style “Shahed” kamikaze drones and three missiles at its territory overnight.
“As a result of combat operations, 33 ‘Shaheds’ were shot down in the Kirovograd, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions,” it said in a post on Telegram.
In Moscow, the defence ministry said it intercepted 16 Ukrainian drones in the early hours of Friday.
Some 15 were destroyed over the southern Volgograd region, the closest part of which is around 300 kilometres (185 miles) from the frontlines in eastern Ukraine.
Another drone was shot down over the Belgorod border region, the Russian defence ministry said.
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Belgorod has seen multiple shelling and aerial attacks since Russia invaded in February 2022.
In the northeast Ukrainian Kharkiv region, an overnight Russian strike injured five people, including a three-year old child, Governor Oleg Synegubov said.
Kharkiv comes under frequent artillery, rocket and drone attacks.
Synegubov posted a picture of a row of shops with their windows blown out and a crater in a road next to a residential building.
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