RUSSIA conducted a heavy aerial attack on Ukraine for the third time in four days today, launching missiles and scores of drones that were mostly intercepted, Ukraine’s air force said.

Russian forces fired five missiles and 74 Shahed drones at Ukrainian targets, an air force statement said. Air defences stopped two missiles and 60 drones, and 14 other drones presumably fell before reaching their target, it said.

Authorities in Kiev said debris of destroyed drones fell in three districts of the city, causing minor damage to civilian infrastructure but no injuries.

Russian long-range strikes on civilian areas have been a feature of the war since it invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials have recently stepped up demands that Western countries supplying arms should scrap restrictions on what Ukraine is allowed to attack inside Russia with the long-range weapons they have provided.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his pleas for Western allies to untie his hands in deciding what to strike on Russian soil.

“All our partners should be more active — much more active — in countering Russian terror,” Mr Zelensky said late on Wednesday.

“We continue to insist that their determination now — lifting the restrictions on long-range strikes for Ukraine now — will help us to end the war as soon as possible in a fair way for Ukraine and the world as a whole.”

The European Union’s top diplomat today backed Mr Zelensky's demand.

Ukraine has deployed domestically produced drones to strike Russia.

The Russian military said today that it had thwarted an overnight attack on Crimea.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces destroyed three Ukrainian sea drones aimed at the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The Russia-installed governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev added that four Ukrainian aerial drones and three sea drones were destroyed “at a significant distance” from the peninsula’s shore.

In the meantime, Ukraine’s Army General Staff acknowledged Ukraine’s involvement in strikes this week on oil depots deep inside Russia, where blazes broke out.

The attacks in the Rostov and Kirov regions aimed to disrupt logistical infrastructure supporting Russia’s military.