Russia on Saturday launched a missile attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv and the surrounding region for the first time in more than seven weeks and pounded the east and south of the country with drones, Ukrainian officials said,
Reuters reports.
Ukrainian border guards said they had retaken a village in the country's northeast adjacent to the Russian border.
Officials in the east, the focus of Russia's slow 20-month-old advance, said Ukrainian forces had repelled numerous attacks by Moscow's troops and they anticipated further assaults, particularly around the devastated town of Avdiivka.
Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said a Russian ballistic missile was launched toward the capital at about 8 a.m. (0600 GMT).
"After a long pause of 52 days, the enemy has resumed missile attacks on Kyiv," Popko said on the Telegram messaging app. "The missile failed to reach Kyiv, air defenders shot it down as it was approaching the capital."
Popko said there were no casualties or major damage.
Ruslan Kravchenko, regional governor for the central Kyiv region, said five private houses and several commercial buildings in the area were damaged. He said two Russian missiles struck a field between settlements.
Ukraine's air defence also shot down 19 Iranian-made "Shahed" drones out of 31 launched by the Russian forces overnight in southern and eastern regions, the air force said.
Ukrainian intelligence official Andriy Yusov told national television: "This is not the first or the last combined attack." He pointed to increasing numbers of air alerts in recent days.
