The Ukrainian air force said it destroyed 22 of 27 Shahed drones launched by Russian over five regions overnight. 

The assault damaged an industrial facility and injured one person in the Poltava region, its governor, Filip Pronin, announced on the Telegraph messaging app.

The Ukrainian military destroyed six drones over the southern region of Mykolaiv, its governor said.

Debris from one of them demolished a private home, and damaged roughly 10 more, but no casualties were reported, he added.

It was reported in February that Russia paid Iran almost $2bn in gold bullion for 6,000 Shahed-136 drones to annihilate Ukrainian cities.

Known as ‘kamikaze’ drones, they are cheap, noisy and expendable and were instrumental in the autumn/winter phase of the war when Russia began terrorising heating supply to grind down Ukrainian morale.

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