Ukraine experienced a relatively calm night compared with recent days but Russian forces still carried out limited attacks with drones and guided bombs, Ukrainian officials said on September 13.
Ukraine's Air Force reported several drones moving toward the southern Kherson and Mykolayiv regions, as well as Zaporizhzhia. Russian forces also launched guided aerial bombs against the Sumy region in the northeast, though there were no reports of large-scale missile barrages that have become almost daily in recent weeks.
It said Russia launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile and 164 drones, including Shahed and Geran models. Air defenses reportedly downed or disabled 137 of them, though 27 drones and one missile hit targets in nine locations across the country.
The Ukrainian military added that the heaviest ground fighting over the previous 24 hours took place on the Pokrovsk front in the Donetsk region, where 49 clashes occurred.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used an appearance at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv on the evening of September 12 to joke that visiting US envoy Keith Kellogg acted "like a Patriot system" since large-scale attacks on the capital appeared to pause whenever he was in the city.
Zelenskyy quipped that Kellogg should be offered Ukrainian citizenship if he could persuade Russia to halt its strikes.
On September 12, a Russian drone and missile strike killed three and injured five near Sumy in northern Ukraine, according to the regional governor. Despite ongoing shelling and attempts to capture villages near the border, Zelenskyy said Russian forces in the area have suffered heavy losses and "lost [their] offensive capability."
Fighting continues in the border areas, but Ukrainian troops have repelled advances in Sumy, as well as in the frontline regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.
Meanwhile, Russian officials said two Ukrainian drones fell onto one of Russia's largest oil refining facilities on September 12 near the city of Ufa -- some 1,400 kilometers from the front line of the war.
Radiy Khabirov, head of Russia's Bashkortostan region, said a fire was ignited at the site after the drones were shot down and fell on the facility. No injuries were reported.
Elsewhere, Romania's Defense Ministry said the NATO nation's airspace had been violated by a drone during a Russian attack on infrastructure in Ukraine.
Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu told RFE/RL the drone eventually exited Romanian airspace and traveled into Ukrainian territory. Officials said four Romanian F-16 jets initially scrambled following the alert, although two were quickly recalled.
On September 10, at least 19 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, severely raising tensions between the NATO Western military alliance and Moscow. On September 12, NATO said it launched Eastern Sentry, a mission to bolster defenses of allied countries near Russia.
