![A view shows a damaged multi-storey apartment block, a section of which collapsed as the result of what local authorities called a Ukrainian missile strike, in the city of Belgorod, Russia, on May 13, 2024 [File: Stringer/Reuters]](https://www.qatar-tribune.com/watanqatartribune/uploads/images/2024/07/31/205989.jpeg)
dpa
Kiev
The Ukrainian Air Force said it intercepted nine out of 10 combat drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as one Russian cruise missile, with no damage reported in the attacks.
Drones flew in the other direction, too, with the Russian Defence Ministry saying on Monday that 39 Ukrainian drones were downed over its border regions. A Ukrainian drone attack damaged a power plant in the eastern Russian region of Oryol, the governor said earlier on Monday in a Telegram post.
Russian media also reported damage to substations in the Belgorod region. Ukraine has been fending off an all-out Russian invasion since February 2022. Including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, Moscow controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
Russian airstrikes have severely damaged Ukraine’s energy-generating capacity. In response, Kiev has been using drones to hit energy facilities deep in Russian territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday visited an army command post near the embattled small town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region close to the Russian border.
“This section is probably one of the most difficult,” Zelensky stressed in a video published on Telegram. He awarded medals to soldiers on the occasion of Special Forces Day.
In May, Russian troops crossed the border near Vovchansk in the east of the country. Since then, heavy fighting has been raging around the town, which is around 4 kilometres from the border.
