Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Thursday that it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones overnight.
A drone attacked had sparked a blaze at an industrial site in Russia’s Penza region, local Gov Oleg Melnichenko said. He didn’t immediately give further details other than to say that there were no casualties.
In the Volgograd region, some trains were also halted after drone wreckage fell on local railway infrastructure, state rail operator Russian Railways said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry also said that its forces took full control of the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Ukrainian officials, who typically don’t confirm retreats, didn’t immediately comment. Russian and Ukrainian troops have battled for control of Chasiv Yar for nearly 18 months. It includes a hilltop from which troops can attack other key points in the region that form the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defences.

A report on Thursday from Ukraine’s Army General Staff said there were seven clashes in Chasiv Yar in the past 24 hours. An attached map showed most of the town as being under Russian control. DeepState, an open-source Ukrainian map widely used by the military and analysts, showed early Thursday that neighbourhoods to the south and west of Chasiv Yar remained as so-called gray zones, or uncontrolled by either side.
The attack targeted the Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy, Mykolaiv regions, with Ukraine’s capital being the primary target, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.-Agencies