Ukraine launches one of the largest airstrikes against Russia since the full-scale war began, including the capital Moscow.
Russia says it has stopped a “massive” Ukrainian airstrike by shooting down at least 158 drones in 15 regions, including two over the Russian capital Moscow.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday that 46 of the drones were shot down over the Kursk region, where Ukraine has sent its forces in recent weeks in the biggest incursion on Russian soil since World War II.
Another 34 drones were shot down over the Bryansk region, 28 over the Voronezh region and 14 over the Belgorod region, all bordering Ukraine, the ministry said, adding that a total of 15 Russian regions were hit.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Sunday that debris from one of two drones shot down over the city caused a fire at an oil refinery.
No casualties were reported.
In Russia, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said nine people were injured in Ukrainian air missile strikes in the Russian border region. Among them, eight people were injured in the regional capital, also called Belgorod.
Hours after a series of Ukrainian drone strikes, Russian forces on Sunday carried out another wave of attacks on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv.
Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that at least 10 Russian missiles hit several locations in Kharkiv, including a shopping mall, injuring at least 44 people, including five children.
Rescue workers and volunteers carried wounded civilians to ambulances in the city after missiles hit the shopping mall and an events hall.
Broken glass and debris were scattered on the ground as people fled to safety at a subway station.
“Ukraine uses its own equipment”
Ukrainian drone strikes have taken the fight away from the front lines and into the heart of Russia.
“Ukrainians are fully justified in responding to Russian terrorism by any means necessary to stop it,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Facebook.
Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has stepped up airstrikes on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals to stop the Kremlin from attacking.
Solomiya Khoma of Ukraine's Center for Security and Cooperation said kyiv's recent widespread attacks on Russian territory may be linked to the fact that it has used its own unmanned aerial equipment since the beginning of the year.
“Ukraine will continue to use its own capabilities, as well as all its missiles and drones, to continue doing so,” he told Al Jazeera from kyiv.
“By the end of this year, we will also see a buildup of such attacks on Russian territories,” he said, adding that the attacks appear to be hitting targets and impacting Russian capabilities.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday it had taken control of the towns of Pivnichne and Vyimka in Ukraine's Donetsk region as the sides continue to put military pressure on each other.
The claim could not be independently verified.
The intensity of the fighting comes at a critical moment in the two-and-a-half-year conflict, with Russia pushing forward an offensive in eastern Ukraine as it tries to drive out Ukrainian forces who breached its western border in a surprise incursion on Aug. 6.
Last week, Russia bombarded Ukraine with its heaviest airstrikes of the war, hitting energy facilities, as part of a drone and missile bombing campaign that has killed thousands of civilians and troops since the conflict began in February 2022.
Ukraine has been lobbying the United States and other allies for permission to use more powerful Western-supplied weapons to inflict greater damage inside Russia and undermine Moscow's ability to attack Ukraine.
