Nine dead as Russia, Ukraine exchange strikes

KYIV: Russia fired a wave of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing four people, while Ukrainian strikes on Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine killed five, officials said Sunday.
The strikes came a day before Ukraine's allies were set to meet in Paris for talks on pressuring Russia to end its more than four-year war.
US-led diplomatic efforts to end the fighting have stalled in recent months, as Washington has shifted focus to its war with Iran.
Moscow has meanwhile escalated its campaign of ballistic missile strikes on Ukraine, killing dozens of people, including in the capital, Kyiv, since July.
Three people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, including two in a strike on an "industrial enterprise" in the city of Kryvyi Rig, regional officials said.
A separate drone attack on the southern city of Kherson killed a 48-year-old, mayor Yaroslav Shanko reported.
Ukrainian strikes on the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region meanwhile left four dead, while a long-range Ukrainian drone strike killed a man in Russia's Samara region, officials said.
Ukraine's air defences have come under strain from repeated Russian ballistic missile strikes in recent weeks.
The United States this week gave Ukraine permission to build US-designed Patriot air defence systems capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles, but it may be months before they enter production.