Moscow: Authorities imposed by Russia in the Crimean peninsula claimed to have shot down a cruise missile close to Kerch on Sunday. They also briefly suspended traffic on the Kerch bridge, which connects the occupied territory to Russia.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Crimea's appointed governor by Moscow, claimed that no harm or casualties resulted from the missile's interception by Russian air defences. He didn't provide any information about the missile's make or country of origin.

Authorities in Rostov, a nearby Russian region, claimed to have shot down a missile on Sunday. The missile, according to governor Vasily Golubev, was fired from Ukraine, and its debris damaged several buildings' roofs. There have been no reported casualties.

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Such attacks on Russian regions near the Ukrainian border or the annexed Crimean peninsula far from the front line, which have now occurred more than 500 days into the conflict in Ukraine, have become commonplace.

Authorities in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as well as those appointed by Moscow have frequently reported explosions, drone strikes, and even cross-border raids by Ukrainian saboteurs. Kiev has never admitted responsibility for these assaults in the open.

The Kerch bridge, an important route for Russian troops to travel and receive supplies while stationed in Crimea, was severely damaged by an explosion last October, rendering it useless for several weeks. Hanna Maliar, Ukraine's deputy defence minister, listed the attack as one of the nation's most significant victories in the conflict so far in a Telegram post on Saturday, what appeared to be the first direct admission of Kyiv's involvement.

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It has been 273 days since the first attack on the Crimean bridge that we launched to obstruct Russian logistics, according to Maliar.
She also mentioned the Moskva cruiser's sinking, which the Russian authorities refused to put down to a Ukrainian attack among other victories.

Russian state media and authorities took notice of Maliar's post on Sunday. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, once more referred to President Volodymyr Zelensky's administration as a "terrorist regime" in an online statement condemning the attack.

In other news, one of the defence commanders from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, who had just returned to Ukraine, announced that he would be returning to the front lines. As Russian forces seized control of the port city early in the conflict, the sprawling steelworks served as the last stronghold of resistance. The more than 2,000 defenders of Azovstal left the steelworks in the middle of May 2022 and were captured by the Russians.

The five leaders were released in a prisoner swap in September and transported to Turkiye, where they were to stay until the end of the war under the protection of the Turkish president. Some of the five leaders were members of the Azov national guard regiment, which Russia accuses of being neo-Nazi. But Zelensky returned them to Ukraine on Saturday. How this fit the terms of the exchange was not immediately explained by the government.

Denys Prokopenko, one of the five commanders, declared to reporters in Ukraine after his return that he would go back to the front lines. I firmly believe that the army works best as a team. And starting today, we'll keep fighting alongside you. We will unquestionably participate in the fight," Prokopenko was quoted as saying by Ukrainian media.

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Nine people have died as a result of the Russian missile attack on Lyman, a city in the partially-occupied Donetsk region, which occurred on Saturday. A few miles (kilometres) separate Lyman from the front line, where Russian forces have recently stepped up fighting in the Kreminna forest.