Russia’s air defense systems were engaged in repelling a drone attack over the Tula region that borders Moscow’s region to its north, Russia’s RIA news agency reported early Monday.

Citing the ministry of regional security, the agency reported that according to preliminary information, there was no damage or injuries as a result of the attack.

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Two of Moscow’s major airports, however, the Vnukovo and Domedovo, limited air traffic, directing flights to other airports, the TASS state news agency reported.

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Two dead in Russian shelling of Ukraine’s Kherson: Governor

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Russian forces shelled southern Ukraine’s Kherson region on Sunday, killing two people and injuring at least eight, the region’s governor said, as Ukraine’s armed forces said they were keeping in check Russian advances in the east and south.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, newly returned from a visit to the United States and Canada, praised Ukrainian forces for successes in both areas of a three-month-old counteroffensive, but he gave no indication any new movement forward.

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Kherson governor Oleksandr Prodkudin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said shelling from the Russian-held eastern bank of the Dnipro River had hit private homes in Beryslav, on the Ukrainian-held west bank. A man was killed in the nearby village of Lvove.

An air strike on Kherson, the region’s main town, injured at least five people and caused considerable damage to buildings.

The Russian military abandoned positions on the west bank of the river and in Kherson city late last year.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said the country’s forces had repelled Russian attacks on two villages near Bakhmut, where Kyiv has been trying to regain ground lost when the city fell to Moscow’s forces in May.

In its evening report, it said Russian forces had “tried to restore lost positions near Klishchiivka … but were unsuccessful.”

The Ukrainian military last week said it had captured Klishchiivka, a strategic village on heights south of Bakhmut, and Zelenskyy, in his nightly video address, praised Ukrainian units for their “firmness” in operations around the village.

Zelenskyy singled out another Ukrainian unit for “showing true Ukrainian might” near the village of Verbove on the southern front. The military last week also announced that Verbove was under control of the Ukrainian military.

The general staff report noted that Ukrainian troops were continuing to advance in the Melitopol sector — where Kyiv hopes to advance to the Sea of Azov and sever a landbridge created by Russian forces between annexed Crimea and areas it has held in the east for more than a year.

The Ukrainian offensive, undertaken with new weapons supplied by the United States and its allies, has focused on capturing villages in both the east and the south.

Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials reject Western criticism that the advance has been too slow and hampered by poor tactics.

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Gunmen in Nigeria killed eight people on Sunday and abducted at least 60 others in two communities of northwest Zamfara state, residents and a local traditional leader said, two days after armed men kidnapped dozens from a university in the state.

Elsewhere, in the northeast of the country suspected extremist insurgents ambushed a convoy of vehicles under military escort, killing two soldiers and four civilians, said a police source and a motorist who witnessed the attack.

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The attackers set fire to five vehicles and drove off with one truck, the witness said.

President Bola Tinubu is yet to spell out how he will tackle widespread insecurity. His economic reforms, including the removal of a costly fuel subsidy and freeing the naira currency, have increased the cost of leaving, angering citizens.

Residents said gunmen early on Sunday tried to attack a forward army base in a rural Magami community of Zamfara, but were repelled. Zamfara is one of the states worst affected by kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs known locally as bandits.

The gunmen in three groups attacked the army base and the communities of Magami and Kabasa, said a traditional leader who declined to be named for security reasons.

He said 60 people, mostly women and children, were kidnapped.

“The bandits rode many motorcycles with guns and other weapons (and) were shooting sporadically,” Shuaibu Haruna, a resident of Magami, told Reuters by telephone.

Four people were killed during the attack, said Haruna, who attended their burial.

Isa Mohd from Kabasa community said four people were also killed and dozens of others kidnapped.

Police and army did not respond to requests for comment.

Attacks in the northwest are part of widespread insecurity in Nigeria. Extremist fighters still carry out deadly attacks in the northeast, gangs and separatists attack security forces and government buildings in the southeast, and clashes involving farmers and herders continue to claim lives.

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