Russia launched 38 attack drones and two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday.
Thirty of the drones were destroyed over several Ukrainian regions, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app. It was not clear what happened to the air weapons that were not destroyed.
As of 4.20am, all of Ukraine was under new air raid alerts with the threat of fresh air attacks, the air force said in a separate Telegram statement.
Meanwhile, Russia’s air defence units destroyed 14 drones that Ukraine launched overnight targeting Kursk, Voronezh and Belgorod region, Russia’s news agencies reported on Tuesday.
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Twelve of the drones were destroyed over the border region of Kursk, and one each over Voronezh and Belgorod regions, RIA agency reported citing Russia’s defence ministry.
There was no information provided on how many drones in total Ukraine had launched overnight.
On Monday, Russia said it had evacuated more than 133,000 people from border areas on Monday as Ukraine pressed on with its surprise incursion, which Kyiv claimed has now taken over 1,000sq km of territory.
Ukraine’s offensive, the first ground invasion of Russia since the second World War, has caught out Moscow’s forces since it began a week ago.
Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed an “adequate response” at a meeting with officials and hinted at consequences for the failure to anticipate the incursion.
“An assessment of the ongoing events must certainly be made, and it will be,” Mr Putin told his security cabinet and the governors of three Russian border regions. “But the main thing now is solving the tasks at hand [ ...] to push out and beat back the enemy from our territory and ensure the state border is well protected.”
He suggested the conflict could spread to other Russian regions.
Mr Putin, who faces the prospect of losing control of parts of Russia’s internationally recognised territory for the first time since he ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, claimed Kyiv was trying to stop Russia’s advance along the frontline and improve its negotiating position in future peace talks.
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The Russian president also claimed his forces had stepped up their advance elsewhere along the front line. He said Moscow would not participate in any potential peace talks with Kyiv.
In his first full acknowledgment of the incursion, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday called it a “defensive action” and said he had asked the security services and interior ministry to prepare a “humanitarian plan” for the area held by Ukrainian forces.
Analysts have said Ukraine may be using the push into Russian territory as leverage in potential peace talks, as well as diverting Moscow’s forces from the front line in Ukraine. – Additional reporting from Reuters
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