Ukraine pounds Kursk with drones, killing one and injuring nine, Russia says

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(Reuters) -Kyiv forces hit Russia’s Kursk region that borders Ukraine with dozens of drones, killing an elderly woman, injuring nine people and sparking fries in several buildings in the region’s administrative centre, Russian authorities said on Tuesday.

The Russian defence ministry, which releases data only on how many drones its forces destroy not how many Ukraine launches, said 109 drones were downed over the Kursk region overnight.

“Kursk has been subjected to a massive enemy attack overnight,” the Kursk region administration said in a post on Telegram messaging app.

“Unfortunately, an 85-year-old woman died.”

A multi-storey apartment building was damaged in result of the drone attack, with several flats catching fire, acting mayor of Kursk, Sergei Kotlyarov said on Telegram. Residents have been evacuated to a nearby school, he added.

The region’s administration posted photos of a multi-storey apartment building with blown out windows and fire damage to the facade. Drones also hit also an ambulance garage, damaging 11 cars, it said.

On Monday evening, three people were killed in the region as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, officials said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine more than three years ago. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

Kursk and other Russian regions on the border with Ukraine have been subject to frequent air and land attack by Kyiv forces who say their goal is to undermine Moscow’s overall war efforts.

Ukrainian troops last year staged a cross-border incursion into the Kursk region of which the city of Kursk is the administrative centre. Ukrainian forces still remain in parts of the region, although Russian forces have recaptured much lost territory.

The attack follows a Russian missile and bomb attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy over the weekend that killed 35 people and injured at least 119.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Lincoln Feast.)