For months, Oleksandr Kamyshin led Ukraine's push to increase its production of drones, one of its most important weapons in the fight against Vladimir Putin's invasion.Used to strike Moscow's forces across Ukraine – and into Russia – Mr Kamyshin was at the forefront of upping the supply of drones in his role as minister for strategic industries and so strengthening Kyiv’s arsenal.

Moscow’s troops have retaken a few villages in a border area that Kyiv’s forces invaded last month and are also advancing steadily in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine struck the Moscow region on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far on the Russian capital, killing at least one woman, wrecking dozens of homes and forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow.

Russia targeted Ukrainian energy facilities in a new wave of airstrikes, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday, despite a U.N. monitoring body saying attacks on the power grid probably violated humanitarian law.

A Ukrainian drone strike hit a Russian weapons depot reportedly caused a 2.8 magnitude earthquake and a huge blast captured in a social media post showed a massive explosion.

Ukraine's air force said on Thursday it had shot down all 42 drones and one of four missiles used by Russia during overnight attacks. Air defences went into operation in nine Ukrainian regions, the air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app nearly 31 months after Russia's full-scale invasion.