2 Killed In Russian Strike In Ukraine As Dozens Of Drones Downed In Overnight Attack

A late-night Russian strike on the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv killed two people, the region's governor said Friday, as both Moscow and Kyiv reported a wave of overnight aerial attacks.

Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov said Russia launched a "series of shelling" attacks on the town of Kupyansk, close to the frontlines, late on Thursday night.

"Houses and cars were damaged. A 36-year-old man was rescued from the rubble. A 64-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man died," he wrote on Telegram.

A separate missile attack on a residential area in the town of Chuguiv, also in the Kharkiv region, injured seven, the governor added.

"Russians shelled Chuguiv with S-300 air defence systems. It hit the ground in a residential area and smashed windows in a nine-storey apartment building," Synegubov said.

He posted a picture of a row of shops with their windows blown out and a crater in a road next to an apartment block.

Kharkiv comes under frequent artillery, rocket and drone attacks.

Russia and Ukraine also said they downed dozens of drones overnight, as both sides keep trying to strike targets deep behind the stretched frontlines.

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 37 Iranian-style "Shahed" kamikaze drones and three missiles at its territory overnight.

"As a result of combat operations, 33 'Shaheds' were shot down in the Kirovograd, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions," it said in a post on Telegram.

In Moscow, the defence ministry said it intercepted 16 Ukrainian drones in the early hours of Friday.

Some 15 were destroyed over the southern Volgograd region, the closest part of which is around 300 kilometres (185 miles) from the frontlines in eastern Ukraine.

Another Ukrainian drone was shot down over the Belgorod border region, the Russian defence ministry said.

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