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Ukraine's war continues to be marked by nighttime drone strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have shot down 10 Ukrainian drones last night in the Kursk region and one in Kaluga.

However, a Ukrainian drone hit an electrical substation in Belaya, in the Kursk region and less than 25 kilometers from the border, cutting off the supply to a hospital.

Separately, the Kremlin has unveiled a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Andrei Troshev, former senior commander of the Wagner group, to discuss how volunteer combat units are used in the Ukraine war. And shortly afterwards they announced that Troshev now works for the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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7:40

Putin asks former Wagner commander to train volunteers

Vladimir Putin has asked a former lieutenant of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group who fell out of favor with the Russian president and died in the crash of his plane in late August, to train volunteers to fight in Ukraine.

"At the last meeting, we discussed the fact that you participate in the formation of volunteer units to carry out various combat missions, mainly, in the scope of the 'special military operation' in Ukraine," Putin asked Andrei Trochev on Thursday, according to a Kremlin statement released Friday.

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7.02

Ukrainian drone hits power station in Russia, affecting hospital

A Ukrainian drone dropped explosives on Friday at a power station in a Russian town near the border, cutting off a hospital supply, the regional governor said.

"A Ukrainian drone unloaded two explosive devices at an electrical substation" in Belaya, less than 25 kilometers from the border, Kursk region governor Roman Stavoroit said.

"One of the transformers caught fire. Five settlements and one hospital were left without electricity," he said on the Telegram platform. "Power will be restored as soon as it is safe to do so," he added.

The Russian Defense Ministry had previously announced the destruction of two drones in which it had previously said its forces had destroyed two drones in the Belgorod region, also bordering Ukraine.

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7.00

Russian bombings kill five in southern and eastern Ukraine

Russian shelling killed three women in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and two people in the eastern Donetsk region tonight, local authorities said.

According to prosecutors, the three women were killed on a street in Kherson, a city abandoned by Russian troops late last year along with other settlements on the western bank of the Dnipro River. Russian forces routinely shell Kherson and nearby areas from positions on the eastern bank of the river.

The prosecutor's office in the eastern Donetsk region said two people were killed when Russian forces shelled Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held city of Donetsk and near the long-disputed town of Maryinka.

In Kostyantynivka, west of the Russian-held city of Bakhmut since May, three people were wounded when Russian forces launched two airstrikes within an hour, according to prosecutors.

Reuters could not independently verify any of the accounts of the military activity.

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