A Ukrainian march attacks an airport north of Moscow, and Russia controls the left bank of the Dnieper River

 Russia announced that a military plane was damaged as a result of a Ukrainian attack on a military airport in Novgorod Province, north of Moscow, and confirmed that its forces fully control the left bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson Province. And while President Vladimir Putin met with senior army commanders in the southern city of Rostov, Ukraine said that providing it with F-16 fighters would change the way the war is going.

Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that a fire that broke out on the airport runway as a result of the attack had been extinguished, and indicated that the control point at the military airport detected the march approaching and targeted it with machine guns before it hit the airport runway.

Before that, the ministry said - in the early hours of Saturday morning - that the missile air defense systems destroyed an "S-200" missile used by Ukrainian forces to attack facilities in Crimea during the night, noting that there were no injuries or material damage.

The Russian Defense Ministry broadcast video clips, which it said were of full control of its forces on the left bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson Province. It added that it eliminated 150 members of the Ukrainian forces who tried to cross the river, but the forces confronted them. It showed scenes of various weapons that the Russian forces were said to have seized from the battle.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Army's Southern Operations Command published pictures that it said were of the destruction of a Russian boat during an amphibious landing attempt on the western bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson Province, southeast of the country.

Ukrainian Southern Operations Command said that the army carried out this mission using suicide marches.

For her part, the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, Hana Malyar, described the situation in Kupyansk, in the Kharkiv region, as difficult.

It said that the Russian forces are attacking Kobyansk in an attempt to control this city, which is a major transportation node and a center for the Russian attack in the east.

Ukrainian army said that the Russian forces targeted 16 towns in the city with artillery and marches, which led to civilian casualties and the destruction of dozens of homes. He added that the evacuations of residents from Kupyansk and its environs are continuing.

Ukrainian Air Force Command also said - in a statement - that the air defense managed to shoot down 15 Shahed drones, out of a total of 17 marches that entered the country from the northern borders near Kharkiv and tried to attack targets in the north, center, and west of the country.

Ukrainian General Staff also announced that large areas of the country were subjected to dozens of missiles and raids during the past hours.

In turn, Ukrainian intelligence announced that it had carried out an intelligence operation targeting the police headquarters of the city of Inurhudar in the southeastern Zaporizhia district of the country, using a suicide drone.

And the Ukrainian intelligence service published a video clip that it said was of the targeting process. She added that the suicide march targeted a security meeting, and a number of its attendees were injured.

And the center of the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine was subjected to Russian bombing, which caused deaths, according to Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, "A Russian missile hit the city center in Chernihiv, in the north of the country," adding, "A square, the Polytechnic University, and a theater were hit. An ordinary Saturday that Russia turned into a day of pain and loss. There are dead and wounded."

On the impact of these developments, the Russian RIA Novosti agency quoted the Kremlin as saying that President Putin held a meeting with senior army leaders at the headquarters of what Moscow calls the "special operation" in Ukraine, in the city of Rostov, in the south of the country.

This comes at a time when Ukraine welcomed Washington's approval to deliver F-16 fighters from Denmark and the Netherlands, and Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat said that providing his country with these fighters would change the shape of the war with Russia.

Earlier Friday, Denmark announced that it had obtained US approval to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine once the training of Ukrainian pilots had been completed.

On the other hand, Russia's ambassador to Washington warned that providing Ukraine with "F-16" fighters capable of carrying nuclear weapons threatens serious consequences.

On the other hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Washington and NATO's escalation of the conflict in Ukraine could lead to a direct clash between the nuclear powers and "must be prevented."

He added - in a press interview - that Russia's policy in the field of nuclear deterrence is of a defensive nature, and that his country is supposed to face the constant desire of what he called the Western minority to continue its military, political, financial and economic expansion.

Lavrov said that the possession of nuclear weapons aims to protect the country from security threats, adding that Moscow continues to remind the West of the dangers to prevent the outbreak of a nuclear weapons conflict.

"Today, having nuclear weapons is the only possible response to some serious external threats to our country," he noted - in an interview with the official International Affairs magazine, published earlier today on the ministry's website.

Last month, the Russian president said that his country would be forced to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine's counterattack on Russian forces succeeded.

Earlier, Biden described Russia's threat to use tactical nuclear weapons as "realistic" while NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance had not detected any changes in Russian nuclear forces.

Source: Agencies