Russian defence ministry says 14 Ukrainian drones destroyed by air defences and another six jammed electronically over the occupied peninsula

What we know on day 535 of the invasion

An elderly woman was killed early Saturday morning due to shelling by Russian troops on a settlement in Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, a local official said according to Reuters.

This morning, around 5:10, the enemy fired on Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi village in Kupiansk district. A residential building was damaged. A 73-year-old woman died,” Kharkiv governor Oleh Synehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters could not independently verify the details of the Ukrainian report.

Ministry of defence sources in Kyiv said the drone attacks had the twin aims of raising morale at home at a time when successes at the fronts were scarce and raising a question among the Russian public over whether Putin was able to protect them.

The raids into the bordering Belgorod region, by both dissident Russian units and Ukrainian saboteurs with a loose link to the official military, were said to have the same purpose, with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, increasingly talking up the reach of his country’s forces.