Russia downed over 150 drones, in one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks, Six killed

The Russian Ministry of Defence said air defences had intercepted and destroyed 158 drones overnight into Sunday, including two over the city of Moscow and nine over the surrounding Moscow region.

Forty-six were over the Kursk region, where Ukraine has sent its forces in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II.

Ukrainian drone strikes have brought the fight far from the front line into the heart of Russia. Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals to slow down the Kremlin's assault.A Russian guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv hit a residential building and a playground, killing six people and injuring at least 55 more, local authorities said.

India said the recent visit of PM Modi to Kyiv will pave way for “stronger bilateral ties” and facilitate forward-looking discussions on the possibility of peaceful resolution of Russia-Ukraine conflict

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “As friends and partners, we will support any feasible and mutually acceptable solution or format that could restore peace.”

Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor, said on Telegram one child was killed in the playground. Three people were killed in the 12-storey apartment block that caught fire as a result of the strike, he said. About 20 of the injured were in severe condition, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

One end of the block was engulfed in black smoke, with many of the upper floors in flames. Several cars parked outside were gutted by fire.

Emergency services and rescue volunteers rushed to carry survivors out of the building. The body of one of the victims lay under a carpet on the ground outside, surrounded by police. Residents of all ages, some of them covered in blood, sat stunned on benches and walls outside as medics attended to their injuries.

The authorities did not give the circumstances in which the fifth person died in the strikes, which hit four areas of the city. Kharkiv has been the focus of heavy Russian bombing throughout the war, although there had been a drop in intensity recently, possibly related to a shock incursion by Ukraine into Russia’s Kursk region.