A drone view of the houses destroyed and heavily damaged during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Korosten, Zhytomy region, Ukraine April 3, 2026. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

Russia has unleashed a massive drone and missile barrage on civilian areas of Ukraine and is stepping up ground attacks along the front.

This week, for the third time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia claimed it fully occupied Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

Ukraine launched more cross-border attack drones than Russia in a one-month period for the first time since the start of the ongoing war in 2022, according to daily data published by the Ukrainian Air Force and Russian Ministry of Defense,

The Russian Olympic Committee will make cash payments to 116 of the country's athletes who were not allowed to compete at the Winter Olympics.

The automated mechanical arm reportedly reinserts fresh rounds into the mortar tube in approximately five seconds.

The shortest direct air route from Ukraine to the Russian ports around St Petersburg travels directly northwards, passing near the eastern borders of Belarus and over western Russia, potentially transversing or skirting Latvian and Estonian airspace.