Russia says Ukraine fired drones at three regions

Russia said Ukraine fired a series of drones over the weekend in an attempt to target border regions and the capital Moscow, in the latest strikes deep inside Russia’s borders.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had intercepted Ukrainian drones overnight in the Bryansk and Kursk regions, both bordering Ukraine. A drone crashed into an apartment building in Kursk, but caused no injuries, the regional governor said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Belgorod border region also came under drone strikes over the weekend, according to Russian authorities. One person was killed in the village of Shchetinovka and another drone was intercepted by air defenses on Saturday, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in Telegram posts.

The Russian claims had not been independently verified and Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment, as is their general practice on attacks inside Russia.

Recently, these types of attacks have become more common in the 18 months of war. Since July, Russian officials have reported that more than two dozen drones have targeted the Moscow region alone.

Throughout the summer, escalating attacks — many of which have been carried out with Ukrainian-made drones — have hit buildings in Moscow’s central business district and a parked supersonic bomber south of St. Petersburg.

Although the scale of the destruction pales in comparison to the devastation caused by Russia’s airstrikes in Ukraine, the attacks have caused damage and disruption.

US officials have said the drone strikes are aimed at demonstrating to the Ukrainian public that Kiev can still fight back, even as its counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory in southern and eastern Ukraine is making slow progress. Another goal, as senior Ukrainian officials have said, is to bring the war to the people of Russia.

Ukraine has also stepped up attacks on Crimea, claiming this week that its forces had made a brief foray into the occupied peninsula and clashed with Russian troops.

But it’s not yet clear if those long-range strikes are having any effect on Russian battlefield operations. News reports this week, including in the New York Times, indicated that Ukrainian and US officials have been at odds over tactics and strategy in the counteroffensive, especially where to deploy troops.

In southern Ukraine on Saturday, one person was killed and four others injured after Russian shelling in Zaporizhzhia, regional military governor Yuri Malashko said on Telegram.

This is what else is happening in the war:

• Aircraft collision: Three Ukrainian pilots were killed on Friday after two combat trainer jets collided in a region west of kyiv, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Among the victims was Andriy Pilshchykov, better known by his call sign “Juice,” who had been a frequent voice on western Media outlets advocating for the supply of F-16 fighter jets. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine paid tribute to Juice on Saturday night, saying he had “helped our country a lot.” He said that an investigation into the causes of the accident was underway and expressed his condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

• Black Sea Corridor: A second cargo ship has set sail from Odessa, according to maritime traffic data, traveling through the temporary corridor established by the Ukrainian government for civilian vessels after Russia withdrew from a deal allowing Ukraine to export its grain.

  It was not immediately clear what was on the ship, which was sailing under the Liberian flag and headed for Bulgaria. The temporary corridor, which hugs the western Black Sea coast from Ukraine to Bulgaria, was established to allow passage for civilian ships that have been docked in Ukrainian ports since before Russia’s full-scale invasion. But Ukrainian officials said they were considering using this new route to restart grain shipments, an uncertain option given Russia’s threats to Black Sea ships going to and from Ukraine.

• Attack on Kyiv: Ukrainian officials said Russian forces launched a wave of missiles into and around kyiv early on Sunday. Air defense systems shot down four cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. But debris from the fallen missiles injured two people and damaged 10 houses in the kyiv region, the local military administration said in a statement.