Ukraine destroys scores of Russian drones as long-range attacks continue

Scores of drones were shot down over Ukraine on Saturday as the country continues to face increased long-range bombardment from invading Russian forces.

The Ukrainian Air Force said 67 drones were launched over the country overnight, with air defences active in 11 regions, including in the capital, Kyiv. Fifty-eight drones were shot down, with three more destroyed by electronic weapons systems, it said.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to increase domestic military production by creating underground weapons factories.

Debris from one drone was photographed on the street outside Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine’s parliamentary press service confirmed drone fragments had been found but said there were no casualties and no damage to the parliament building.

The bombardment follows a week of increased long-range attacks across Ukraine, including a missile strike on a Ukrainian military academy and hospital on Tuesday in the city of Poltava that killed 55 people and wounded 328 more.

Funerals were taking place in Poltava on Saturday for some of the victims.

Another attack on Wednesday on Lviv – a city near the border with Nato member Poland and far from the front lines – killed seven people, including a mother and her three daughters.

The deaths had a profound impact on the city, which had largely been spared the worst of the attacks that typically target infrastructure and are focused with greater intensity in the east of the country.

The attacks have also underscored Moscow’s long-range capabilities as Ukraine braces for what will likely be another difficult winter as Russia continues to smash Ukraine’s power grid, knocking out some 70 per cent of generation capacity and rupturing heat and water supplies.

Zelensky has renewed his call for the removal of restrictions on using Western-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory, adding that Ukraine was ramping up its own weapons production.

“We are setting up underground weapons production facilities so Ukrainian soldiers can defend themselves, even if supplies from our partners are delayed,” he said late on Friday.

“We have developed new drones and missiles, and we are gradually bringing this war back to Russia. Eventually, Putin will feel the pressure to seek only one thing: peace.”

Meanwhile, Kyiv has continued to launch its own strikes against Russia. In the Russian border region of Voronezh Saturday, governor Aleksandr Gusev said that a drone strike had sparked a fire and the detonation of “explosive objects”.

Writing on social media, he said that a state of emergency had been declared for the region’s Ostrogozhsky district and that several villages had been evacuated.

He did not provide the names of the villages affected and urged followers not to share photos or videos of fire that could be geolocated online.

By Associated Press Reporters