Ukraine and Russia trade overnight drone attacks, military officials say

LONDON — Dozens of Russian drones were launched overnight in an attack targeting regions throughout Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Seventy-two of the 76 Shahed drones that were launched were destroyed by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses, the Ukrainian air force said. The drones targeted regions throughout Ukraine, including Kyiv, the capital, officials said.

At least two regions in Russia were also targeted overnight by Ukrainian drones, the Russian Ministry of Defense said early Saturday.

“Ten UAVs were destroyed over the territory of the Kursk region and nine over the territory of the Belgorod region by air defense systems on duty,” the ministry said on Telegram.

The overnight launches between Ukraine and Russia followed talks on Friday in Washington, where President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed possibly lifting restrictions on the use of some Western weapons that could be used by Ukraine to strike deeper within Russia.

A decision on whether to ease those restrictions, which Starmer described as a “particular tactical strategy,” was not announced following the meeting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said allowing such long-range strikes would amount to NATO forces becoming “directly involved” in the war.

“If this decision is made, it will mean nothing short of direct involvement — it will mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries are parties to the war in Ukraine,” Putin said, according to a transcript published by the Kremlin. “This will mean their direct involvement in the conflict, and it will clearly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict dramatically.”

Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials have long been pressing the U.S. and Western allies for permission to conduct strikes deeper in Russia with long-range U.S.-made weapons.

“We need more air-shield, air-defense and long-range capabilities to continue to protect life and our people,” Zelenskyy said in a message in Ukrainian on Saturday on the messaging app Telegram.

The U.S. State Department said Saturday on its official Russian-language social media channels that America’s “goal is to make sure that Ukrainians resist Russian aggression as effectively as possible,” adding, “Putin will continue to suffer strategic failures in Ukraine.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy traveled to Kyiv this week to discuss those long-range capabilities, among other topics, with Ukrainian leadership.

“We have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to do that as this evolves,” Blinken said on Wednesday.

The two diplomats briefed Biden and Starmer during their White House meeting, according to Downing Street.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday said he had “no doubt” that the decision “was taken long ago” to lift restrictions on long-range weapons.

“[A]nd now they are only trying to find the most suitable, acceptable and elegant way of presenting it to the public,” he said in remarks in Moscow.

ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Michelle Stoddart, Molly Nagle, Anne Flaherty, David Brennan, Meredith Deliso and Oleksiy Pshemyskiy contributed to this report.