INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia on Friday claimed to have improved its fighting positions around the northeast Ukraine town of Kupiansk, as Kyiv's troops struggle
ahead with their counteroffensive in other areas.Moscow also launched a volley of hypersonic missiles at western Ukraine in an attack that
killed an eight-year-old boy in a part of the country that has largely been spared from attacks.Kyiv said the strikes hit a house where a
family with three children lived near the western town of Kolomiya.Kupiansk and the surrounding areas of the northeast Kharkiv region were
recaptured by Kyiv's forces in September, but Moscow has since pushed back into the region, forcing Ukraine to order civilian
evacuations.According to Moscow's Defense Ministry, Russian units had "continued offensive operations on a wide front and improved the
tactical situation" in Vilshana and Pershotravneve to the east of Kupiansk.The situation around Kupiansk was "difficult, given the power of
Thursday urged residents in 37 settlements wedged between the town and Russian lines to evacuate the area.Residents could evacuate to
Kharkiv, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west, where they would have the option to move to safer regions, they said.Russia's drive in
Kupiansk has sought to draw Ukrainian forces away from Kyiv's own counteroffensive.Ukraine launched its highly anticipated push in June
after stockpiling Western weapons, but has struggled to make headway in the face of stiff Russian resistance.Missile targetsRussia on Friday
launched four Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at targets in western Ukraine, Kyiv's air force said."One Kh-47 missile was destroyed within
Kyiv region," the air force said, while the rest were hit near the Kolomyia airfield in the Ivano-Frankivsk region."Civilian facilities and
infrastructure were hit, and one of the missiles hit a residential area," it said.On Thursday, a Russian strike in the city of Zaporizhzhia
killed at least one and wounded 14, according to Ukrainian officials.The United Nations said Thursday its staff and other organizations had
frequently used the hotel hit by the strike.The UN's humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said in a statement she was
"appalled" by the incident and described attacks on civilian targets like the hotel as "inadmissable."The Russian Defense Ministry however
said it had hit a temporary base for foreign mercenaries in the city."In the area of the city of Zaporizhzhia, the point of temporary
deployment of foreign mercenaries was hit," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.It comes after two Russian missiles hit a civilian
building housing a pizzeria popular with aid workers and journalists in the eastern town of Pokrovsk earlier this week.Moscow indicated the
target of the strike was in fact a command post of the Ukrainian army in the east of the country.Moscow targeted by droneIn Moscow,
officials said they had destroyed a drone aimed at the capital, the latest in a string of attacks on the city in recent days.A Ukrainian
drone was destroyed over the western outskirts of Moscow, the Defense Ministry said, adding there was no damage or casualties as a result of
the incident."An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an unmanned aerial vehicle on a facility in Moscow was
thwarted," the Defense Ministry said, adding there was no damage or casualties as a result of the incident.Largely spared in the early part
of the conflict, the capital has seen a surge in attacks in recent months.On Thursday, Russia said it downed two drones headed for Moscow, a
day after two others were destroyed on approach.At the start of this month, an office block in the capital's main business district of
Moscow City was struck twice within days by debris from a downed drone strike.AFP journalists saw police had cordoned off parts of a park in
the Karamyshevskaya embankment in the west of Moscow, where debris landed Friday."Drones are flying yet again above Moscow, and keeping us
in fear a bit," said Artemy Dulisov, a 21-year-old tech student who biked with a friend to see where the drone had fallen.
