Sawt Falasteen - Russia pummels Ukraine with 'record' drone barrage

Moscow and Kyiv have been escalating their drone and missile broadsides, with Ukraine recently firing US long-range missiles at Russia and the Kremlin retaliating with an experimental hypersonic missile.

The barrage came as ambassadors from Ukraine and NATO's 32 members were due to meet in Brussels over Russia's firing last week of the intermediate-range missile on the city of Dnipro.

"During the night attack, the enemy launched a record number of Shahed strike unmanned aerial vehicles and unidentified drones," the air force said Tuesday, referring to Iranian-designed drones and putting the overall number fired at 188.

The air force said it had shot down 76 Russian drones in 17 regions, while another 95 were either lost from their radars or downed by electronic jamming defensive systems. It did not specify what happened to the remainder.

Moscow also fired four Iskander-M ballistic missiles, the air force said.

"Unfortunately, critical infrastructure facilities were hit, private and apartment buildings were damaged in several regions," a statement said.

AFP journalists heard explosions ring out over the capital, while Kyiv city officials said the air alert had lasted five hours and 10 Russian drones were shot down there.

- Power disrupted -

In the western Ternopil region, which is among those spared the worst of the fighting, authorities said drones had damaged a "critical infrastructure facility," without elaborating.

They said however that the attack had disrupted electricity in the city of Ternopil and surrounding towns, and that engineers were working to stabilise supplies.

Putin said the new missile attack last week was in response to Ukraine firing weapons supplied by the United States and Britain into Russia.

The Kremlin leader warned that Moscow felt "entitled" to hit military facilities in countries that allow Ukraine to use their weapons against Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike "the latest bout of Russian madness" and appealed for updated air-defence systems to meet the new threat.

Kyiv says it hopes to get "concrete and meaningful outcomes" after calling the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.

But diplomats and officials at NATO have played down expectations for any major results from the consultations on Tuesday afternoon at the alliance's Brussels headquarters.

The most that is expected is a reiteration of NATO's earlier insistence that Moscow's deployment of the new weaponry will not "deter NATO allies from supporting Ukraine".

The meeting "provides an opportunity to discuss the current security situation in Ukraine and will include briefings from Ukrainian officials via video link," a NATO official said.

On the battlefield, Ukraine's fatigued troops are struggling to halt advances by Russian forces in the east of the country.

W.Mansour--SF-PST