The Ukrainian Air Force Command in Kiev said 135 Russian combat drones had been located since Thursday evening. Of these, 80 drones were shot down. No damage or injuries were reported. The Russian army says it is recapturing Ukrainian-occupied villages in the Kursk region.
44 of the unmanned flying objects disappeared from radar again, two flew to Belarus, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Around ten drones were still circling over central Ukraine in the morning.
Such figures from the Ukrainian armed forces cannot be verified in detail, but they give an impression of the extent of the nightly attacks. There was an air alert in the capital Kyiv for four and a half hours overnight; Anti-aircraft fire was reportedly heard twice. According to the city administration, no damage or injuries were recorded.
The Russian army says it is retaking Ukrainian-occupied villages in the Kursk region. Ukrainian soldiers left their positions near the village of Lyubimowka out of fear of being surrounded and fled. This was reported by the Russian state news agency Tass, citing military sources in Moscow. Drones dropped grenades on the fleeing Ukrainians.
50 dead and dozens of prisoners
The retreat took place near the village of Tolsty Lug. The Russian Telegram channel Mash reported heavy Ukrainian losses. There was talk of around 50 dead and dozens of prisoners. The Russian information cannot be independently verified. There was no confirmation from the Ukrainian side.
Meanwhile, Ukraine began evacuating the embattled city of Kupyansk in the northeast of the country. “Around 10,000 people” had to be brought to safety from the city and three neighboring communities due to the ongoing Russian attacks, regional governor Oleh Sinehubow said on Friday on the Telegram online service. The authorities had already warned on Tuesday that “constant shelling” was making it impossible to reliably supply residents with water and electricity.
Kupyansk in the region around the city of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country was initially captured by Russian troops after Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine began in February 2022, before Ukrainian troops recaptured the city around six months later. Before the war, around 26,000 people lived there.
Repeated Russian attacks have left numerous buildings in Kupyansk severely damaged and dozens of civilians killed. Russian troops have been advancing in the east of the country for months and have now brought dozens of places back under their control.
Ukraine says it has received the remains of hundreds of soldiers who were killed in the fight against Russian invading troops, especially in the east of the country. “501 bodies of fallen Ukrainian defenders” had been brought back, the Coordination Staff for Prisoner of War Affairs said in Kiev on Friday. Most of the fallen were brought back from the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, where Russian troops are currently advancing.
After identification, the bodies should now be handed over to the relatives, as the coordination staff further announced. The exchange of prisoners and killed soldiers is one of the few areas in which Moscow and Kiev still cooperate. The now reported repatriation of fallen Ukrainian soldiers is the largest in number since the Russian war of aggression began in February 2022.
Meanwhile, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that the commanders of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces are testing the readiness of their unit stationed in the city of Bologoye. The exercise includes maneuvers and the use of mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Yars type, it said, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.
