RUSSIAN air defences intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the city of Moscow and nine over the surrounding Moscow region, the defence ministry said today.

Forty-six drones were shot down over the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops are advancing into Russia. A further 34 were shot over the Bryansk region, 28 over the Voronezh region, and 14 over the Belgorod region, all of which border Ukraine.

Drones were also shot down deeper into Russia, including one each in the Tver region, north west of Moscow, and the Ivanovo region, north-east of the Russian capital. 

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that drones were intercepted over 15 regions, while one other governor said a drone was shot down over his region, too.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that falling debris from one of the two drones shot down over the city caused a fire at an oil refinery.

The Russian Defence Ministry said today that it had taken control of the towns of Pivnichne and Vyimka, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. 

Russian forces have been driving deeper into the partly occupied eastern region, the total capture of which is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. It is also closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defence in the area.

In Ukraine overnight, eight drones were shot down out of 11 launched by Russia, according to the Ukrainian air force.

One person was killed and four wounded in shelling overnight in the Sumy region, local officials said, while Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said five people were wounded in his region. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine and Poland clashed over the 1942-44 massacre of ethnic Poles by the Nazi collaborator Ukrainian Insurgent Army, whose leader Stepan Bandera has been rehabilitated as an anti-Russian hero by the current Ukrainian regime.

During a public discussion in Poland on Saturday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba was asked when Ukraine would permit the exhumation of the victims of an atrocity at Volyn.

The Ukrainians have long resisted requests for the exhumation since it would involve acknowledging the role of Ukrainian nationalists in wartime ethnic cleansing.

Mr Kuleba caused uproar by attacking Poland for the 1947 Vistula operation, which involved deporting ethnic Ukrainians from Poland to Soviet Ukraine. 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: “Ukraine will not be a member of the European Union without Polish consent. Ukraine must meet the standards, and they are diverse — it’s not just a matter of border, trade, legal and economic standards. 

He said: “It is also a matter of standards, I would say, of cultural and political standards.”