Ukraine and Russia launch night-time drone strikes amid tensions over missile strikes

LONDON — Ukraine’s air force said at least 73 Russian attack drones entered the country’s airspace from Saturday to Sunday morning, after a week in which both sides made battlefield history with new advanced weapons systems.

Ukraine’s air force said it had downed 50 of 73 Russian drones entering the country. Another 19 drones were lost in flight, while four more were still flying in Ukrainian airspace around 7 a.m. local time.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported downing 36 Ukrainian drones on Saturday night and early Sunday.

The ministry said its own strikes were part of a broader campaign of attacks on “military airfields, drone production facilities and warehouses, as well as concentrations of enemy manpower and military equipment.”

Drone exchanges have been a constant part of Russia’s large-scale invasion of its neighbor, with their scale and frequency increasing as the war continues. Russia also often combines its UAV barrage with missile attacks.

“This week the air raid siren sounded almost every day throughout Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in Telegram early Sunday.

“During the week, Russia used more than 800 guided aerial bombs, about 460 attack drones and more than 20 missiles of various types against Ukraine and our people,” he added.

“Ukraine is not a weapons testing ground,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Ukraine needs more air defense, and we are working on this together with our partners. It is very important to strengthen the protection of our airspace.”

Tensions rose last week after Ukraine’s use of ATACMS long-range missiles against military targets in Bryansk – the first time Kiev has used the advanced US weapon on Russian soil.

A US official also confirmed to ABC News the first Ukrainian use of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles in Russia’s western Kursk region, with a wounded North Korean general among the casualties.

The Kremlin’s response to Tuesday’s ATACMS attack was furious.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed long-planned changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine within hours of the attack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the changes mean that “the use of Western non-nuclear missiles by the armed forces of Ukraine against Russia could lead to a nuclear response.”

Russia followed up its latest round of nuclear threats on Thursday by attacking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile. Moscow warned the US about the ‘Oreshnik’ missile attack 30 minutes in advance.

“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military objects of those countries that allow us to use their own weapons against our objects,” Putin said shortly after the attack. “In the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and reflectively,” the president added.

Zelenskiy, meanwhile, said the retaliatory attack in Moscow showed that “Putin is terrified.” The Russian leader, he added, “is doing whatever it takes to prevent his neighbor from breaking away from his grasp.”

Yehor Cherniev – a member of the Ukrainian parliament and chairman of his country’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly – told ABC News that Kiev would not be intimidated by Russian threats.

“Ukraine has every right to use the full arsenal of available conventional weapons to the full depth of the aggressor’s territory,” he said shortly after the ATACMS attack in Bryansk.

“We will continue to attack military targets on the territory of the Russian Federation until the threat to Ukraine is eliminated,” Cherniev said.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.