From 11pm Thursday to 7am today, “air defence systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 155 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the fixed-wing type”, the ministry said on Telegram, adding that 53 of the drones were shot down over the Kursk region bordering Ukraine.

Earlier the governor of the western Lipetsk region said that one person died after a drone crashed into a farming area.

“Tonight, a drone crashed into the territory of one of the agricultural enterprises of Khlevensky district,” which is around 400km south of Moscow, Igor Artamonov wrote on Telegram.

“As a result, a fire broke out, which was quickly extinguished,” he said, adding that one person died and another was wounded.

One other person was killed and another wounded in a drone attack on Russia’s western Tula region, governor Dmitry Milyaev said on Telegram.

In Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, on the border with Russia, a Russian strike hit the city of Chuguiv early today, destroying two private homes and damaging a hospital building, Mayor Galyna Minaeva wrote on Facebook.

Three people were wounded, Minaeva said.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said this morning on Telegram that at least 28 people, including two minors, were wounded in Russian shelling on Thursday.

Over the past week, Moscow has pummelled Ukraine with the largest drone and missile barrages since it sent troops into its neighbour in February 2022.