Russia says it downs at least 159 Ukrainian drones, fires Iskander missile

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Thursday it had shot down 159 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including about 20 headed towards Moscow, as the war in Ukraine heated up despite major powers discussing ways to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

U.S. President Donald Trump is pressuring Russia and Ukraine to end the more than three-year war, but the two sides remain far apart. Ukraine and its Western allies are demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire but Russia says certain conditions must first be met. Kyiv says those conditions are unacceptable.

While leaders talk of the prospects for peace, the war is intensifying: swarms of drones are being launched by both sides while fierce fighting is underway along key parts of the front.

Russia's defence ministry said 159 drones had been shot down over Russian regions between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. (0500-1700 GMT) on Thursday. The previous day, Russia said it shot down well over 300 Ukrainian drones.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported late in the evening that 17 drones had been downed over the region surrounding Moscow, which has a population of 21 million. Sobyanin had earlier reported 40 downed drones overnight.

Three Moscow airports - Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky - suspended flights intermittently.

Separately, Russia said on Thursday it had fired an Iskander-M missile at part of the city of Pokrov, formerly known as Ordzhonikidze, in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, destroying two Patriot missile launchers and an AN/MPQ-65 radar set.

Ukraine's air force reported damage in the Dnipropetrovsk region after an attack but did not specify the type of weapon.

The governor of Russia's western Kursk region said a Ukrainian missile strike on the town of Lgov had wounded 16 people.

The Russia-installed governor of the occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region said a Ukrainian strike had killed a woman and injured four children in a car.

RUSSIA REPORTS ADVANCES

Russia's defence ministry said its forces were advancing at key points along the front, and pro-Russian war bloggers said Russia had pierced Ukrainian lines between Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had captured the settlement of Nova Poltavka in between those two towns.

Ukraine's military made no such acknowledgement in a late evening report on the area but the popular DeepState war blog, which refers to open source reports, showed the settlement to be under Russian occupation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had said on Wednesday that the heaviest frontline battles were around Pokrovsk, but made no reference to any Russian advances.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine and says the territory is now formally part of Russia, a position Ukraine and its European allies do not accept.

Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. Russian forces also control almost all of Luhansk and more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. Russia also controls a sliver of the Kharkiv region.

(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow and Kyiv; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Gareth Jones, Ron Popeski and Nia Williams)