🔴 Live: Russia launches drone attack over Kyiv region, say Ukrainian authorities

Issued on: 10/09/2023 – 05:30Modified: 10/09/2023 – 08:59

3 min

8:56am: Romania summons Russian charge d’affaires over drone fragments

The Romanian foreign ministry has summoned the Russian charge d’affaires following the discovery of new fragments of a drone similar to those used by the Russian military on Romanian soil, the Agerpres website reported on Sunday.

8:31am: Russia says it destroys Ukraine-launched drone over Bryansk region

Russian air defence forces destroyed a Ukraine-launched drone over the Bryansk region on Sunday morning, the defence ministry said.

The ministry’s statement on the Telegram messaging app did not immediately report any damage or casualties.

The Bryansk region in southwestern Russia borders Ukraine. 

7:45am: No arrest risk for Putin if he attends G20 in Brazil, Lula says

Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not be arrested if he attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next year, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.

The Russian president is skipping this year’s gathering in New Delhi, avoiding possible political opprobrium and any risk of criminal detention under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.

India is not a member of the ICC, which issued the warrant in March over accusations of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children, a war crime, but Brazil is.

Lula, however, speaking to Indian news network Firstpost on Saturday, said Putin would be invited to next year’s event, to be hosted by Brazil.

“If I’m the president of Brazil and if he comes to Brazil, there’s no way that he will be arrested,” he said, adding he planned to attend a BRICS bloc of developing nations summit in Russia next year.

7:19am: Kyiv says Russia launched 32 drones in attack on Kyiv

Thirty-two Russian drones attacked Ukraine, Kyiv military authorities said Sunday, adding that 25 of them were downed.

“The occupiers attacked Ukraine with 32 kamikaze drones… of which 25 were destroyed by Ukrainian air defence forces. The Russian occupiers directed most of the attack UAVs to the Kyiv region,” Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement.

05:14am: Russia downs eight Ukraine-launched drones over Crimea, says Russian defence ministry

Russia’s air defence systems destroyed eight Ukraine-launched drones over the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula in the early hours of Sunday, the Russian defence ministry said.

The ministry, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, did not immediately say if there were any damages or injuries.

05:00am: Ukraine downs more than two dozen drones targeting Kyiv, say authorities

Ukrainian air defence forces downed more than two dozen drones targeting Kyiv overnight, city authorities said Sunday morning.

“Drones entered the capital in groups and from different directions,” Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.

“Air defence forces managed to destroy more than two dozen enemy UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles),” he said, adding that the exact number would be announced by Ukraine’s air force.

Authorities had urged people to remain in shelters as the air defence system rained debris on the capital.

Key developments of Saturday, September 9:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Kyiv is “ready” to organise elections despite the ongoing war. Earlier, Zelensky said Russian air superiority is ‘stopping’ his country’s counteroffensive against occupying forces. The remarks came as Russian air strikes killed several people and injured dozens more in eastern Ukraine. 

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)