According to the Russian defence ministry, three Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Russian capital, Moscow, destroying a high-rise structure thought to hold government buildings. The incident resulted in no injuries, although it did temporarily compel the city's four airports to close.
Although the drone assaults were not specifically attributed to Ukraine, its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that the conflict was "gradually returning to Russia's territory - to its symbolic centres."
Separately, the Russian defence ministry said that it had effectively stopped a nighttime attack by 25 Ukrainian drones on the Crimean peninsula that had been seized. It said that no one was harmed and no damage was done.
According to Ukrainian officials, there has been fierce combat in the country's northeast, with Ukrainian forces maintaining their positions and gaining gains in certain regions.
In particular, the area around Bakhmut, where Ukrainian troops claim they are regaining territory lost when Russian forces captured the city in May, was characterised by Zelenskyy as having a "good day, a powerful day" at the front.
According to authorities, a Russian strike in the northeastern Kharkiv area started a fire at a "non-residential" structure but had no fatal consequences. After rescue workers cleared the area of the rubble, the dead toll from a Russian attack on a school on Saturday increased to two in the northern city of Sumy.
Russian soldiers, according to Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar, are "trying to drive us out" of elevated northeastern positions that Kiev subsequently retook after Moscow launched a full-scale assault. She stated on national television that the main aim for the Russians was to "divert our soldiers from the Bakhmut area, where we have a good attack. This week, they have relentlessly assaulted. But despite suffering significant losses, our soldiers fight back against the onslaught.
Maliar claimed that Russian soldiers were "tenaciously trying to seize back" territory that Ukraine had retaken on the southern front. She said that although Ukraine had reclaimed 200 square kilometres (77 square miles) in the south, its progress had been hampered by minefields and well established Russian positions.
230.499 SRY