Russia and Ukraine... between attack and defense 34 drones and hundreds of injuries.

The past hours have witnessed a new escalation in the war zone between Russia and Ukraine, as the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday morning that its air defenses had managed to shoot down 34 Ukrainian drones attempting to target its territories during the night.

The ministry explained in an official statement carried by "Sputnik" agency that the Russian air defenses intercepted these drones in multiple areas, bringing down 15 aircraft over Kursk province, 8 others in the skies of Bryansk province, while 7 drones were destroyed in Oryol province, 3 in Vladimir, and one aircraft in Belgorod.

On the other hand, the night was not peaceful for Ukraine, as the city of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country was subjected to intense drone raids by Russian aircraft, resulting in 39 people being injured, some in critical condition, according to the city's mayor Ihor Terekhov on Telegram.

The Russian attacks caused extensive damage to towering residential buildings, houses, a medical facility, as well as civilian infrastructure.

Other areas of Ukraine were not spared from shelling, as Russian aircraft targeted the cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih, in addition to the Kherson region. According to the governor of Dnipro region, Serhiy Lisak, the airstrikes resulted in the death of at least one person there.

Amid this escalation, reports from Russian authorities in Donetsk indicate that 16 people were injured in the town of Horlivka due to Ukrainian artillery shelling, raising tensions and keeping the war open to more bloody and complex possibilities.