At least five Ukrainian combat drones have been downed over Russian territory as Kyiv continues with a pledge to bring Moscow's war in Ukraine back to Russia. Two drones were shot down on approach to Bryansk city in Russia's southwest, two were shot down over the southern Rostov region, and one was intercepted near the capital, Moscow, Russian officials and state news agencies reported early on Thursday. One person was injured and several vehicles damaged when one drone was shot down and crashed in the city of Rostov-on-Don in the early hours of Thursday, according to Russia's state-run TASS news agency. "According to verified information, air defence systems shot down two unmanned aerial vehicles," Rostov's regional Governor Vasily Golubev said, according to TASS. A separate news report said that buildings were also damaged in Rostov-on-Don due to falling debris from the destroyed drone.

Russian aviation officials say it's going to be very difficult to extract data from the black boxes of the FlyDubai flight that crashed in southern Russia because they're so badly damaged. The Boeing 737-800 from Dubai nosedived and exploded in a giant fireball short of the Rostov-on-Don airport runway at 3:42 a.m. Closed-circuit TV footage showed the plane going down at a steep angle and exploding upon impact. The crash scattered debris and left a large crater in the runway. The plane was trying to land for a second time in poor weather.