Moscow, Kiev carry multiple drone strikes on each other

Russia launched 68 drones and four missiles targeting Ukrainian territory overnight, Ukraine's air force has said.

Two Iskander-M ballistic missiles struck Poltava and Odessa regions and two Kh-59 guided air missiles targeted the Chernihiv and Sumy regions, the air forces said on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.

Ukraine's air defence units destroyed 31 of the drones, while 36 were unaccounted for, most likely intercepted by Ukraine's electronic warfare, the air force said.

The remaining drone was still in the air, it said.

Russia's air defence units destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones overnight over three regions bordering Ukraine, Russia's defence ministry said.

Six drones each were downed over the Belgorod and Kursk region, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app. One drone was destroyed over the Bryansk region.

Push back

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russian forces had tried to oust Ukrainian troops from positions in Russia's Kursk border region, but that Kiev forces were holding their lines.

"Regarding the Kursk operation, Russia tried to push back our positions, but we are holding the designated lines," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that its forces had recaptured two villages in the border Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops launched a mass incursion in August.

Zelenskyy has acknowledged that the Ukrainian advance into Kursk was intended to draw Russian troops away from frontline positions in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have been making steady gains in recent months.

Russia's defence ministry on Friday announced the capture of Ostrivske, a village on a reservoir near the town of Kurakhove, a key Russian target in its advance through the Donetsk region.

Russia on Sunday said it has captured another east Ukrainian village as it closes on the important city of Pokrovsk, where its forces have been advancing for weeks.

Moscow's defence ministry said its forces have now taken Mykhailivka, at the gates of the town of Selydove, and south of Pokrovsk.

Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk a mining town that was home to some 60,000 people before Moscow launched its offensive.