Russian drone incursion delays Zelensky flight from Moldova

Russian drones have been targeting Ukraine with increasing intensity in recent weeks and an attack on a Moldovan border crossing at Starokozache killed two people overnight into Tuesday.

The Russian army has new jet-powered unmanned aircraft that are much faster and more difficult to intercept.

Analysis by BBC Verify has shown the capital Kyiv has now suffered more air raid alerts than at any time since 2022 – on average ten times a day.

Ukraine has also had success with its use of drones and on Thursday announced what it called a “record hit” on Russia gas plants.

Drones flew more than 3,000km (1,864 miles) into Russia on Wednesday to hit a gas processing plant in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district of Northern Siberia.

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said this was its deepest attack into Russia since the war began. Yamalo-Nenets is one of Russia’s key oil and gas processing regions.

Overnight Russian forces attacked a petrol station in Kyiv, seriously injuring four people.

Oil company Ukrnafta’s CEO Bohdan Kukura said on Facebook: “This is terror and intimidation of the civilian population.”

Russia has attacked hundreds of Ukrainian petrol stations in recent months in an attempt to disrupt the country’s military forces.

It has been locked in war with Ukraine since it invaded the country in February 2022.

Peace talks, led by the US’s Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are ongoing but have failed so far to find a solution to end the conflict.