Ukraine’s air force says it downed Russian ballistic missile, 79 drones

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KYIV (Reuters) – Russian forces attacked Ukraine with a ballistic missile and 126 drones, setting a fuel storage facility on fire and injuring at least two people in different parts of the country, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down the ballistic Iskander-M missile and 79 of the drones, while another 35 drones did not reach their targets likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures.

In the southern region of Odesa, the attack set on fire a fuel storage facility, a private home and a storage site for children’s toys, and more than 100 people were working to deal with the strikes, according to the emergency services.

A drone attack in northeastern Kharkiv region injured one person and also damaged agricultural storage facilities, governor Oleh Syniehubov and local prosecutors said.

In Sumy, another northeastern region where Ukrainian officials said on Monday that Russia was trying to create an active fighting zone, an attack injured one person and damaged four two-storey apartment buildings, local authorities wrote on Telegram.

The air force did not say what happened to the 12 drones that were not shot down.

The attack came as Russian officials said Ukraine had launched its biggest drone attack on Moscow, with hundreds of drones downed across Russia.

(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; Editing by Tom Hogue, Aidan Lewis)