<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The Ukrainian military claimed on Thursday that Russia had launched a "massive" drone attack overnight and that more than 30 Russian unmanned aerial vehicles had been destroyed.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nataliya Gumenyuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian southern military command, said UAVs were intercepted over Black Sea coastal regions and also further inland.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia "does not stop the pressure and searching for new tactics: namely, with the use of mass attacks", Gumenyuk said on the messaging platform Telegram.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Tonight, several groups of strike UAVs were launched... air defence worked along almost the entire southern direction -- in Odesa, Mykolaiv regions. Also, much higher north -- the enemy aimed its attacks on central Ukraine," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The consequences of the attack are being clarified now, because it was indeed a massive one.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"However, the air defence work was quite effective. Over 30 UAVs were destroyed."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since July, when Moscow pulled out of a UN-brokered deal allowing safe grain shipments via the Black Sea, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine's grain-exporting infrastructure in the southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>