New Russian bombings in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin's army struck Ukrainian territory overnight with 20 drones and three ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian armed forces said on Wednesday, January 31, stressing that the air defense had shot down a dozen machines.

Ukraine, which has suffered Russian aerial bombardments for almost two years, has called on its Western allies to strengthen its defensive systems.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russian forces launched 20 Iranian-designed attack drones as well as three ballistic missiles.

Supermarket and houses hit in Kharkiv region

Ukrainian air defense systems, mainly in the southern and eastern regions of the front, shot down the drones, according to the same source, which did not mention the missiles.

The authorities have provided little information at this stage on the damage caused by this new attack.

Police in the Kharkiv region (east), which borders Russia, however, indicated that a supermarket and residential houses had been damaged during the attack.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Ukraine's priority is to regain control of its airspace this year in order to make progress on the front.

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Two civilians killed in Donetsk region

For their part, Ukrainian forces have also been increasing drone strikes for several months. Two civilians were killed and another injured in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk controlled by Russian forces, the pro-Russian mayor of Horlivka said on Wednesday.

“Due to a drone strike of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against a civilian vehicle on the road connecting Horlivka and Donetsk, near the village of Panteleimonovka, two civilians were killed, one person was injured,” wrote Mayor Ivan Prikhodko, on his Telegram channel.

A Ukrainian drone was also "destroyed by anti-aircraft defense forces over the territory of the Pskov region", in north-west Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said on its official website.

With AFP

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