Russia launches major drone attack on Ukraine – as new Nato chief visits Kyiv

Russian forces have launched a major drone attack on 15 Ukrainian regions, causing damage to energy infrastructure, residential buildings and schools.

The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 78 out of 105 Russian drones during the assault, but the aerial attacks still damaged power lines and substations’ equipment in the Kyiv, Odesa and Ivano-Frankivsk regions in the past day.

The attacks caused temporary disruption of railway services in the southern Odesa region as well as power cuts for households, Ukraine’s energy ministry said.

Authorities said they had downed around 15 drones over Kyiv and its surroundings during an air alert that lasted over five hours. The central Ukrainian regions of Poltava, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad all reported minor damage to property.

Moscow denies targeting civilians but has regularly struck towns and cities behind the front lines. A Russian glide bomb also struck a five-story residential building in Kharkiv, injuring at least 12 people including a 3-year-old girl, local officials said.

The bomb hit between the third and fourth floors of the building on Wednesday night, igniting blazes, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said it had launched its own missile attack towards Russia, including using provided ATACMS [Army Tactical Missile System] ballistic missiles on a Russian Radar station.

The military did not say when the strike had taken place or give the venue of the ‘Nebo-M’ radar station but said the aim was to reduce Moscow’s ability “to detect, track and intercept aerodynamic and ballistic targets”.

The US sent ATACMS missiles to Ukraine this spring and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Ukraine had committed at the time to only using the weapons inside its own territory. Russian forces currently occupy about 18 per cent of Ukraine's territory.

Ukrainian drones also attacked the "Borisoglebsk" military airfield and warehouses for fuel and guided bombs in Russia's Voronezh region, a Ukrainian security source.

Ukraine’s SBU security service was continuing actions to reduce the ability of Russian troops to use fighter jets with guided bombs to strike Ukrainian cities, and that attacks on Russian airfields would continue, the security source told news agency Reuters.

The drones attacked warehouses, parking lots for Russian Sukhoi Su-35 and Su-34 jets and aviation fuel storage facilities at the Borisoglebsk airfield, according to the source.

The Independent could not verify these assertions.

It comes as new Nato chief Mark Rutte met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday to reiterate Nato’s pledge that Ukraine would one day be a member of the alliance.

In his first trip to Kyiv since being appointed, Mr Rutte stressed the alliance’s staunch support for Kyiv, telling Mr Zelensky “Ukraine is closer to Nato than ever before”.

The Ukrainian president said he wanted to see Kyiv’s allies shooting down missiles and drones used by Russia in its attacks on Ukraine, just as some of Israel’s allies did when Tehran attacked Israel with missiles this week.

He also renewed his appeal to the Western allies to allow Ukraine to conduct deep strikes inside Russia with weapons supplied by them, saying they were “delaying” their decision. Wary of Russia’s response, Ukraine‘s allies have held off on making such a move.

On the frontline, Ukraine’s armed forces commander General Oleksandr Syrskyi ordered defences to be strengthened in the eastern Donetsk region, a day after Kyiv forces announced they had withdrawn from the town of Vuhledar.

Russian troops are steadily inching forward in different sectors in eastern Ukraine despite Kyiv’s surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region in August that it was hoped would slow the advances.

Ukrainian troops are now on the defensive and military announced on Wednesday it was pulling troops out of the coal-mining town Vuhledar, a hilltop bastion that had resisted intense attacks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Moscow’s forces now control just under a fifth of Ukraine.