Moscow:

Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine launched a major 62-drone attack on Russian regions forcing one oil refinery in southern Russia to halt operations, and that Kyiv’s forces had fired U.S., French and Ukrainian missiles at Russian-held territory.

Russia shot down at least 103 drones, including 62 over Russian regions, as well as Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) over Crimea, French guided “Hammer” bombs and U.S. High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

Local officials said six drones crashed onto the territory of an oil refinery in Slavyansk in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. Interfax news agency said the refinery halted work after the attack.

TASS quoted an official at the refinery as saying the charges carried by the Ukrainian-launched drones were bigger than previous attacks and that they included steel balls.

Slavyansk refinery is a private plant with a capacity of 4 million metric tons of oil per year, about 1 million bpd.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters in Kyiv that Ukraine’s security service SBU and military drones struck the Slavyansk refinery and a military airfield in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region in overnight attacks.

The Ukrainian navy also said it had destroyed the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Project 266-M Kovrovets minesweeper.

Russia said its forces had defeated Ukraine’s 24th and 42nd mechanized brigades and the 125th Air Defense Brigade at Lukiantsi, Vesele and Radhospne in the Kharkiv region and repelled attacks by Kyiv’s forces at other points in the region.

Russia has reported a rise in Ukrainian attacks on its territory since its forces opened a new front in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region earlier this month.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia is carving out a buffer zone there to protect Russia from such attacks, which Russia says risk triggering a broader war between Russia and the West if Ukraine uses Western weapons.

Putin said on Friday that Russia had no plans currently to take Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city,

The White House said on Friday that U.S. policy on not encouraging Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons against Russian sovereign territory had not changed.

“We do not encourage nor do we enable attacks using U.S.-supplied weapons systems inside Russian territory. That’s the policy,” John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters. “That has not changed.”

That remark came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday in Kyiv that the United States does not encourage Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia with U.S.-supplied weapons but believes it is a decision Kyiv should make for itself.

CRIMEA

Russia said on Saturday its forces had captured the village of Starytsia in Kharkiv region and that they had defeated Ukrainian units along the front, including in the Sumy region.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and along with parts of four other regions its forces control, considers the territories – which amount to about 18% of Ukraine – to be part of Russia now. That stance has been rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he will not rest until all Russian troops are ejected from Ukraine.

Zelenskiy told Agence France-Presse in an interview that he expected Russia to step up its offensive in the northeast and warned Kyiv had only a quarter of the air defences it needs to defend Ukraine.

AFP also quoted him as saying that while the West did not want Ukraine to lose the war, it was afraid of what a defeat for Russia might mean.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Russian air attack hit a school stadium in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv on Wednesday, injuring at least four children and three adults, officials said.

Two teenagers were hospitalised in serious condition, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said on the Telegram messenger.

The prosecutor’s general office added that the school and nearby residential buildings were damaged in the attack.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, and the surrounding region have long been targeted by Russian attacks but the strikes have become more intense in recent months, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure.

Russia denies targeting civilians but many have been killed and injured in its strikes during the 26-month-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kharkiv:

The 240-meter television tower in Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv broke in half and fell to the ground on Monday, footage obtained by Reuters showed, after what local officials said was likely a Russian missile attack on television infrastructure.

The broadcasting signal was disrupted to Ukraine’s second-largest city, which has been pounded by Russian missile and drone strikes in recent weeks.

“At the moment there are interruptions to the digital television signal,” regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

There were no casualties because workers were in shelters, he added.

Footage from the scene showed the main mast of the tower breaking off and falling as a cloud of smoke rose into the sky.

It was not clear from the footage what had hit the mast, but Kharkiv prosecutors said Russia had likely used a cruise Kh-59 missile in the attack.

The video was verified by corroborating video from another angle showing the same moment the top of the tower collapsed.

Russia first attacked Kharkiv’s television tower several times in early March 2022 soon after it launched its full-scale invasion. The signal was disrupted at the time.

Moscow has recently stepped up its attacks, while Ukraine is suffering a shortage of air defense capabilities. Kharkiv and the surrounding region have experienced the most intense strikes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Russian attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine killed at least three people on Wednesday, officials said, as Kyiv called for more Patriot air defence systems to battle a surge in missile strikes.

Moscow has escalated aerial attacks on Ukraine in the past few weeks, targeting key infrastructure — including power stations — in retaliation for fatal bombardments of Russia’s border regions.

In Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, which has been reeling from power outages due to the strikes, officials said shelling killed at least one person and injured 16 others.

“Four children are among the wounded. Apartment buildings were damaged. The number of victims may increase,” the region’s governor Oleg Sinegubov said.

The governor of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, which is partially occupied by Russia, said one woman had been killed in a drone attack on the village of Mykhailivka.

“A 61-year-old local resident was fatally wounded in her own home,” the official, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on social media.

And in the southeastern city of Nikopol, officials said artillery fire killed a 55-year-old man, while a ballistic missile strike on the coastal territory of Mykolaiv left eight wounded.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 13 Iranian-designed attack drones overnight and that 10 were downed over the Kharkiv region, the neighbouring Sumy region and near the capital Kyiv.

‘Little time’

During an online briefing on Wednesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called again for urgent deliveries of air defence systems he said were crucial in warding off the increase in attacks.

“The peculiarity of the current Russian attacks is the intensive use of ballistic missiles that can reach targets at extremely high speeds, leaving little time for people to take cover and causing significant destruction,” Kuleba said.

“Patriot and other similar systems are defensive by definition. They are designed to protect lives, not take them,” he said.

Ukraine has been forced onto the defensive in the past few months as it struggles with ammunition shortages and delays to a $60 billion aid package from Washington.

It has also been forced to concede ground to Russia on the eastern front, warning earlier this week of “difficult” battles around the eastern city of Chasіv Yar.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in the Sumy region on Wednesday, where he met with soldiers recovering from their injuries.

The army’s ground forces commander warned last week that Russia was building a group of over 100,000 soldiers in advance of what may be a major offensive this summer.

Russia meanwhile announced that its air defence systems had shot down 18 rockets near the border city of Belgorod, which has recently seen an increase in fatal Ukrainian attacks.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said two people were wounded during the barrage and later drone attack.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Ukrainian drone was chased by two Russian combat helicopters and an airplane in the occupied territory of Crimea. A video of the dramatic chase has been posted by Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media platforms. Local outlets like news agency RBC-Ukraine said that the drone was unharmed and returned to the base intact. The video, taken by the camera installed on the drone, shows a helicopter chasing the Ukrainian military asset and vanishing from the screen after sometime.

“Two enemy helicopters and a plane failed to shoot down the Ukrainian drone during a long chase,” DIU said in its post on X.

Два ворожих вертольоти та літак за час тривалої погоні так і не змогли збити український безпілотник (ВІДЕО)

https://t.co/yY4iJul8KJpic.twitter.com/w8DBlzwr5i

— Defence intelligence of Ukraine (@DI_Ukraine) September 1, 2023

According to Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, the drone was flying in the area of Cape Tarkhankut when Russia scrambled its jet and choppers.

“Some crooked hands,” it quoted the UAV operator as saying about the encounter.

This comes on a day when Russian air defences destroyed a drone approaching Moscow. “There were no casualties or damage, according to initial reports. Emergency services are on the scene,” city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram.

Moscow has been targeted by a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks after Kyiv vowed in July to “return” the conflict to Russia.

On Thursday, air defences in the Voskresensky district, about 60 kilometres from Moscow, destroyed a Ukrainian drone approaching the capital.

Air defences also destroyed a drone approaching Moscow on Monday, as well as two others over the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.