Both Ukraine and Russia also rarely disclose the full extent of the damage their attacks inflict, unless residential or civilian infrastructure is damaged, or civilians die.

Ukraine’s military said later that it struck an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system based in Russia’s southern Rostov region.

Kyiv’s General Staff said the attack took place near the settlement of Novoshakhtinsk, and that S-300s had been used to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

“Explosions were observed at specified targeting points,” the General Staff said in a statement. “The accuracy of the strike is being assessed.”

Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev said air defence forces had destroyed an Ukraine-launched missile over his region, but Russia’s Defence Ministry made no mention of the incident in its daily statement on destroyed air weapons.

On August 6, Ukraine launched a surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region, the biggest invasion of Russia since World War II, as proof that Ukraine’s military can still succeed in offensive operations - and still surprise.

The latest assaults were part of a broader Ukraine drone attack on Russia. Air defence systems also destroyed 18 drones over the bordering Bryansk region in Russia’s south-west, and separate drones and missiles over other regions, Russian officials said.

There were no casualties or damage reported after the attack on Bryansk, Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the region wrote on Telegram.

Russia’s RIA state news agency reported that two drones were destroyed over the Tula region, which borders the Moscow region to its north.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

In recent months, Kyiv has stepped up its air attacks on Russian territory, saying its aim is to destroy infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts. It also says that its attacks are in response to Russia’s continued strikes on Ukrainian territory.

Meanwhile, Putin has made an unscheduled trip to Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation, his first visit there in nearly 13 years.

Putin was greeted by Chechnya’s self-styled strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, before visiting a special forces academy bearing his own name and speaking to volunteer fighters who train there for deployment in Ukraine.

Putin praised the volunteers and said that as long as Russia had men like them, it would be “invincible”, according to reports by Russian state agencies.

Kadyrov said in a post on his official Telegram channels that more than 47,000 fighters, including volunteers, have trained at the facility since Moscow began what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Fighters from Chechnya, whose bid for independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse led to years of war with Russian government forces, are participating on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine.

Reuters

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