Ukraine today hit back at Russia with a drone blitz on Kursk, across the border from Sumy, where Vladimir Putin's troops killed 35 and wounded 119 in a devastating attack launched on Palm Sunday. Dozens of explosions rocked the city in the “massive attack”, with Moscow reports saying a woman, 85, had died, with nine people suffering shrapnel wounds.

At least four apartments on the seventh and ninth floors of a residential building on Zavodskaya Street were destroyed. The fire broke out on five floors in an apartment building on Orlovskaya Street and in a residential building on Veszpremskaya Street. Some five houses were also damaged as Russia claimed to have shot down 109 drones over Kursk.

According to Baza, the attack damaged "at least five houses" in total. In all, there were more than 30 explosions as drones hit targets and others were shot down by air defences.

The full scale of the damage was not immediately clear. Ukraine also released footage of aerial attacks on Russian armoured vehicles - and two Chinese-made Desertcross 1000-3 utility terrain vehicles used by Putin’s army - in the Kursk region, a small part of which remains controlled by Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces.

Separately, Russian sources confirmed a power station in the Orenburg region - at least 850 miles from the war zone - was hit.

The explosion and fire were the result of a “terrorist” strike, said Russian Telegram channels.

The blast close to Sakmarskaya Thermal Power Plant led to power being cut off from homes and industrial facilities.

Initially, Russia announced a “short circuit” caused the inferno, but investigators said later that the latest mystery fire to hit Russia was caused by “unknown persons entered the substation territory on the night of April 13….broke the locks and planted an explosive device”.

Footage showed flames reaching into the night sky in the Orenburg region.