Shafaq News- Moscow/ Kyiv

Russian air defenses shot down Ukrainian drones over several regions of western and southern Russia from Thursday evening into Friday, regional governors said. No casualties were reported.

The Rostov region in the south saw the heaviest activity. More than 110 drones were destroyed over the past day above the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky and nine districts, Governor Yury Slyusar said on Friday. Falling debris set dry grass alight in Chertkovsky district and started a forest fire in Sholokhovsky district, and both fires were put out.

In the Voronezh region, which borders Ukraine, air defenses destroyed 62 drones over two urban districts and six districts, causing no casualties or damage, the regional news agency RIA Voronezh reported.

Farther north, 18 drones were downed over the Kaluga region on Thursday evening and overnight, Governor Vladislav Shapsha said. In the Tula region south of Moscow, five drones were shot down, according to Governor Dmitry Milyaev, who said no one was hurt and initial reports showed no damage to buildings or infrastructure.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Thursday evening that air defenses had downed 227 Ukrainian drones during the day over more than a dozen regions, including the Moscow region and Crimea, and over the Black Sea. It had not released overnight figures at the time of publication.

Shelling in Donetsk

In occupied eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-installed Donetsk People's Republic 14 times over the past 24 hours, wounding two civilians, TASS reported, citing a Moscow-backed body that documents what it describes as Ukrainian war crimes. The attacks damaged two residential buildings, a bus, a minibus and two civilian infrastructure sites.

Ukraine's latest reports

Ukrainian officials had not issued updates for Friday at the time of publication. On Thursday, Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 97 attack drones during the day, 78 of which were shot down or disabled, the state news agency Ukrinform reported.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces hit a target in the Black Sea, a drone launch and storage site in Russia's Oryol region, an oil facility in Samara region and a military supply depot in Bryansk region.

Russian drones struck the area around Kyiv's South Bridge on Thursday, disrupting traffic and metro service, according to Ukrinform, which also reported that a Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot was killed when a Russian missile hit his aircraft during a combat mission.