KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian air defenses shot down more than a hundred Ukrainian drones over Russia’s western regions on Sunday, Moscow officials said, while 17 people were wounded in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih in a ballistic missile attack.
The Russian Defense Ministry said 110 drones were destroyed during the overnight barrage against seven Russian regions. Many focused on the Russian border region of Kursk, where 43 drones were reportedly shot down.
Images on social media appeared to show air defenses at work over the city of Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region, close to a factory producing explosives.
Local governor Gleb Nikitin wrote on social media on Sunday that four fighters had been injured while repelling a drone attack over Dzerzhinsk’s industrial zone, but gave no further details.
Such large-scale airstrikes are still relatively rare in Russia, two and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In a similar attack in late September, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported the destruction of 125 drones in seven regions.
Meanwhile, 17 people were injured in Ukraine’s Kryvy Rih after the city was hit by two Russian ballistic missiles, officials said on Sunday.
The attack late Saturday night damaged homes and businesses, local government chief Oleksandr Vilkul said.
In a statement on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched around 800 guided aerial bombs and more than 500 attack drones over Ukraine in the past week alone.
“Every day Russia hits our cities and communities. It is deliberate terror by the enemy against our people,” he said, renewing calls for continued air support from the country’s allies.
“United in defense, the world can stand against this targeted terror.”
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
