Russia launches drone and missile attacks in southern and eastern Ukraine | Ukraine

Russia launched a drone and missile attack on targets in southern and eastern Ukraine, according to local officials and residents who said they heard loud explosions.

Air raid sirens sounded across much of the country late Thursday evening. Serhiy Lysak, the military administrator of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said Shahed drones were detected heading towards the area.

The Dnipro Info Telegram channel reported the distinctive “moped-like” sound of Iranian drones hovering in the sky. “Go to the shelters and stay there,” he posted. At least one drone was shot down, he added.

Vitalii Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv Oblast, said drones had been spotted heading towards the regional capital, which has been bombed several times since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly a year. “Not so many,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Other reports have surfaced of drones in Zaporizhzhia Oblast where fighting is taking place on a sprawling frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces. The Ukrainian air defenses were said to be working.

In eastern Donbass, residents of the Ukrainian-controlled towns of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk said they heard explosions. Both urban centers are close to Bakhmut, where fighting has raged for months. Russian troops sought to encircle the city, ahead of an attack on Kramatorsk, a key Ukrainian military center.

There have been other unconfirmed reports of 30 to 40 Shahed drones being launched from occupied territories. Mariupol and heading towards territory under Ukrainian control. The attack came hours after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s trips to London, Paris and Brussels and his Thursday speech at the European Parliament and his meeting with EU leaders.

More details soon…