Russian drone strikes kill at least nine across Ukraine overnight

Overnight Russian strikes targeting warehouses and ports across Ukraine killed at least nine people. In the Sumy region, five people died and 24 were injured, while a separate attack on the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv killed four and injured 19.

The latest wave of attacks comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues an international diplomacy tour, currently in Canada for talks on air defence and winter preparedness.

In a statement, Zelenskyy also highlighted Ukraine's capacity for retaliatory strikes, saying Ukrainian forces hit eight Russian infrastructure sites supporting the war effort over the past 24 hours, including an oil refinery in the Yamalo-Nenets region and a seaport in Dagestan, as well as targets in the Moscow, Voronezh, Astrakhan and Bryansk regions.

Drone reportedly nearly hit Zelenskyy's plane

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Zelenskyy's plane was almost struck by a drone while leaving Moldova for Oslo earlier this week. The incident is linked to a previously reported drone incursion into Moldovan and Romanian airspace on Tuesday night. The Ukrainian side has not commented on the matter.

Separately, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte is meeting Germany's foreign minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday to discuss Ukraine and Germany's own recent experience with Russia following an attempted drone attack in Leipzig.

In related developments, Reuters reported that Nato allies Britain, Norway and the US disrupted a covert Russian operation in Arctic waters earlier this spring, aimed at testing technology capable of disabling undersea cables linking Svalbard to mainland Norway without leaving traces.