Ukraine-Russia war live: Five-hour air raid sirens in the east after Kyiv downs warplane in Donetsk
Russia launched 87 attack drones and four missiles overnight targeting Ukrainian territory, Ukraine‘s air force said
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Russian air attacks on Ukraine kept the eastern half of the country under air raid alert for more than five hours, the Ukrainian military has said.
Moscow launched several waves of strikes targeting Kyiv, Odesa and other cities, according to the military.
The Ukrainian military shot down 56 out of at least 87 drones launched by Russia over various regions of the country, the air force said.
“The enemy once again used its drones against Kyiv overnight!" Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on Telegram. "Russian drones entered the capital of Ukraine in several waves and from different directions."
All the air weapons were destroyed on their approach and, according to preliminary information, there were no reports of damage or injuries, Popko said.
Air raid alerts for the capital and its region was announced three times during the night, totalling more than five hours, Mr Popko added.
It comes as Ukrainian forces said they shot down a Russian fighter plane near the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk province.
Photos showed charred remains of an aircraft after it landed on a house that caught fire.
Full report: Russia launches major drone attack on Ukraine – as new Nato chief visits Kyiv
Russia launches major drone attack on Ukraine – as new Nato chief visits Kyiv
Ukraine’s military also says it struck Russian radar station with US-provided ballistic missiles
Zelensky visits Sumy region bordering Russia’s Kursk region
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had visited the northern Sumy region, from where Ukraine launched a major incursion into the neighbouring Russian Kursk region in August.
“Today I started my trip to the Sumy region with a meeting with our soldiers who are fighting in the Kursk region, defending our border regions and the entire state,” he said on the Telegram messaging platform.
Court in Belarus sentences activists for attempted sabotage of Russian military plane
A court in Minsk sentenced a dozen individuals to prison terms of between two and 25 years for helping commit what Belarus has called an “act of terrorism” at a military airfield outside the capital last year.
A group of Belarusian anti-government activists said in February 2023 that they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at the base.
Russia and Belarus dismissed the assertion as fake, with Belarusian state television publishing footage showing what it said was the undamaged Beriev A-50 surveillance craft.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, alleged at the time that Ukrainian security services and the U.S. Central Intelligence agency were behind the operation.
The main defendant, Ukrainian national Nikolai Shvets, was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison.
Former Nato chief says he regrets not providing Ukraine with support earlier
Former Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg has said he regrets the alliance did not provide military support to Ukraine earlier.
“If there’s anything I in a way regret and see much more clearly now is that we should have provided Ukraine with much more military support much earlier,” he told the Financial Times.
“I think we all have to admit, we should have given them more weapons pre-invasion. And we should have given them more advanced weapons, faster, after the invasion. I take my part of the responsibility.”
Mr Stoltenberg also said Nato had called Putin’s “bluff” after “crossing all those so-called red lines” the Russian President had put up.
Putin has constantly threatened Nato and Ukraine’s Western allies to not interfere with Russia’s invasion, often with nuclear threats.
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