Ukraine announces the penetration of Russian defenses, and Britain warns of new Russian attacks

 Today, Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had thwarted a second Ukrainian attempt to carry out an attack using a drone over Belgorod province, while Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said during his visit to Kyiv that reviving the grain agreement is a priority for his country.

This comes at a time when Ukraine confirmed that it had succeeded in penetrating the main Russian defense lines in Zaporizhia province, while the British Ministry of Defense said that Russia may intensify attacks in northeastern Ukraine.

Earlier today, Saturday, Russia announced that it had destroyed a drone over the Astra region of Belgorod bordering Ukraine, while the governor of the province announced that civilians were injured as a result of cluster munitions.

In turn, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Russian air defenses shot down a drone in the Istra region, on the capital's outskirts, at dawn today, Saturday.

Russian media reported that Moscow's airports resumed navigation traffic normally after restricting flights for an hour, against the backdrop of dropping the march in the suburbs of Moscow.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Air Force Command reported that it had destroyed two Iranian "Shahid" drones in Kharkiv province, in the northeast of the country.

Two people were also killed and another injured after Russia bombed the village of Podoli near Kobyansk (northeast), according to what the region's governor, Oleg Sinigubov, announced today, Saturday.

On the ground, a Ukrainian military commander told Reuters - that the Ukrainian forces believe that they have penetrated the most difficult lines of Russian defense in Zaporizhia (south), and will now be able to advance more quickly.

For its part, the British Ministry of Defense reported that Russia could intensify its attacks east of the towns of Kobyansk and Lyman (northeastern Ukraine), aiming to advance westward to the Oskil River and create a buffer zone around Lugansk.

And she added - in her daily intelligence update on the war in Ukraine - that the Ukrainian counterattack put Russian forces under pressure in Bakhmut and southern Ukraine.

In a parallel context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged allies to expedite the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to help counter Russian forces.

Zelensky said - in a video clip posted on social media on Friday evening - that "our goal is to get closer to the time when the F-16 will help us remove Russian terrorists as quickly as possible."

Denmark and the Netherlands agreed - earlier this week - to provide Ukraine with combat aircraft, following two visits by Zelensky to these two countries, and Norway became the third country to pledge to deliver these aircraft to Kyiv after Prime Minister Jonas Garr visited the Ukrainian capital last Thursday.

Dozens of aircraft in total have been committed to Ukraine, but the exact delivery date has not been set.

On the other hand, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the plans of European countries to provide Kiev with F-16 fighters and Mi-24 helicopters confirm that these countries follow a hostile approach towards Russia, and its increasing involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, as she put it.