The governor of western Russia’s Belgorod region said Wednesday falling fragments from a destroyed Ukrainian aerial drone damaged two residential buildings, while Russia’s defense ministry said the country’s air defenses shot down a total of three drones and six missiles over the region.
The defense ministry also said it destroyed an aerial drone over the Kaluga region, and the governor there said there were no reported injuries or damage.
Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it destroyed all 24 Russian drones involved in overnight attacks.
The intercepts took place over the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Odesa, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used his nightly address Tuesday to again plead for the immediate arrival of weapons from allies as his country continues its battle to beat back Russia.
Zelenskyy said it is imperative that countries supporting Ukraine understand “the means of destruction that are needed at the front right now, in these weeks, not sometime in the summer.”
Meanwhile, Russia has begun “practical training in the preparation and use of nonstrategic nuclear weapons,” its defense ministry said Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the drills earlier this month in "response to provocative statements and threats by Western officials,” the ministry said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said NATO should not rule out deploying troops to Ukraine, while British Foreign Minister David Cameron has said Ukraine has the right to fire Western missiles into Russian territory.
The drills are being conducted in Russia’s southern military district, which borders Ukraine and also includes parts of Ukraine that Russia claims it has annexed.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the training is designed to test “the readiness of personnel and equipment of nonstrategic nuclear weapons combat units to respond and to unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state.”
The West has accused Putin of irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling.
Nonstrategic nuclear weapons, also known as tactical, are less powerful than strategic nuclear weapons, but they also have the capacity to wield devastating destruction.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
