Ukraine keeps pounding Kursk region with drones: Russian officials

Kyiv launched more than two dozen drones on the Russian region of Kursk in several waves of attacks that started Saturday night and damaged an oil depot, Russian officials said on Monday.

Nineteen drones launched from Ukraine were destroyed by Russia's air defense systems overnight, Russia's defense ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

That follows 19 drones that Andrei Smirnov, Kursk's governor, said defense systems destroyed over the region on Sunday.

Neither Smirnov nor the Russian defense ministry said how many drones in total Ukraine had launched.

Firefighters were still trying to put out an oil depot fire in the region, sparked by Ukraine's drone attack on Saturday night, Smirnov said.

He said the attacks caused minor damage to several residential buildings. 

Russian officials rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks.

The Russian defense ministry said that, in total, its air defense systems destroyed 39 drones that Ukraine launched targeting Russia's territory overnight.

Nine drones were destroyed over the Belgorod region, five over the Bryansk region, and three each over the Voronezh and Leningrad regions, all in Russia's west.

The ministry did not list the Oryol region, where, according to the governor of the southwestern Russian region, a power plant was damaged in a Ukraine-launched drone attack overnight.

Reuters