Russia says it thwarted a Kyiv drone attack following its own aerial assault against Ukraine

Thirty-two Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Saturday, Moscow officials reported, a day after an 18-hour aerial barrage across Ukraine killed at least 39 civilians.

Thirty-two Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Saturday, Moscow officials reported, a day after an 18-hour aerial barrage across Ukraine killed at least 39 civilians.

Drones were seen in the skies over Russia's Moscow, Bryansk, Oryol, and Kursk regions, the country's defence ministry said in a statement. It said that all of the drones had been destroyed by air defences.

Cross-border shelling also killed two people in Russia. A man died and four other people were injured when a missile struck a private home in Russia's Belgorod region late Friday evening, regional head Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on social media. A nine-year-old was killed in a separate incident in Russia's Bryansk region, said local governor Aleksandr Bogomaz.

Cities across western Russia have come under regular attack from drones since May, with Russian officials blaming Kyiv. Ukrainian officials never acknowledge responsibility for attacks on Russian territory or the Crimean peninsula. However, larger aerial strikes against Russia have previously followed heavy assaults on Ukrainian cities.

Russian drone strikes against Ukraine continued Saturday, with the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reporting that 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones had been shot down across the Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, and Mykolaiv regions.

On Friday, Moscow's forces launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones across Ukraine, an onslaught described by one air force official as the biggest aerial barrage of the war.

As well as the 39 deaths, at least 160 people were wounded and an unknown number were buried under rubble in the assault, which damaged a maternity hospital, apartment blocks, and schools.