Russia launches overnight air attack on northern, central Ukraine

Russia launched an overnight air attack against Ukraine on Sunday, sending missiles over other northern and central parts of the country, authorities said.

The Ukrainian military reported shooting down four cruise missiles out of up to eight total airborne targets detected, adding that the rest of the targets were "probably false."

It also said there were no immediate reports of strikes.

The governor of Kyiv region, Ruslan Kravchenko, said two people had been wounded and 10 buildings damaged by falling missile debris in one unspecified area of the region.

Minimal damage inflicted

"Thanks to the professional work of the air defense forces, there were no strikes on critical or residential infrastructure," he said in a statement.

All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts for about three hours early on Sunday before they were cleared at around 6 a.m. (0300 GMT).

Russia has carried out a campaign of regular air strikes involving missiles and drones against Ukrainian targets far from the front line as part of its 18-month-old full-scale invasion.

Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry said on the Telegram messaging channel on Sunday that its forces had shot down two drones overnight in the Bryansk and Kursk regions, which both border Ukraine.

"The regime in Kiev made further attempts to commit terror attacks using fixed-wing drones on targets in the Russian Federation during the night and in the morning of Aug. 27," the ministry said.

It gave no information about possible casualties or damage.

The governor of Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, posted pictures on his Telegram channel which he said showed damage caused by a drone to an apartment block in the city of Kursk, with windows blown out.

Drone attacks on Russian targets, especially in Crimea - annexed by Moscow in 2014 - and in regions bordering Ukraine, have become almost a daily occurrence since two drones were destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.

The attacks have disrupted flights in and out of Moscow in recent weeks. Ukraine rarely takes direct responsibility for such drone strikes but says destroying Russian military infrastructure helps a counter-offensive begun by Kyiv in June.