Moscow accuses Ukraine of a missile attack that has injured 15 people on its territory

Russian forces attacked a key village on Friday that Ukraine claimed to have recaptured in its counter-offensive in the country's southeast, while Moscow accused Kiev of firing a missile at a southern Russian town that authorities said injured 15. people.

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky celebrated Ukraine's State Day by reaffirming the country's sovereignty.. A response to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who used his claim that Ukraine did not exist as a nation to justify his invasion.

“Now, as more than a thousand years ago, our choice of civilization is unity with the world,” Zelensky said in a speech outside the Saint Michael Monastery in kyiv.. “To be a power in world history. To have the right to a national history, with its people, its land, its state. And with our children, all future generations of the Ukrainian people. We will definitely win!”

He also honored the military and handed out the first passports to young citizens as part of the ceremonies. This holiday coincides with the celebration that marks the beginning of the widespread adoption of Christianity in the land that later became Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

On Friday the Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down a Ukrainian missile in the city of Tagenrog, about 40 kilometers east of the Ukrainian border, and local authorities reported that 15 people were injured.. Debris fell on the city, the ministry added, claiming the missile was part of a “terrorist attack” from Ukraine.. Rostov regional governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram that another missile was intercepted by air defenses in another part of the region.. He did not provide any details.

For his part, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Danilov blamed Russian air defense systems for the explosion in Taganrog.

Earlier, a Ukrainian drone had been shot down outside Moscow, the Defense Ministry said, in the third drone strike or attempt in the capital region in the past month.. The ministry said there were no injuries or damage in the latest incident, and did not give an exact location where the device fell.

Since the war began, Russia has blamed Ukraine for drone, bomb and missile attacks on its territory far from the front lines of the battlefield.. Ukrainian officials rarely confirm being behind these actions, which have included drone attacks on the Kremlin that unnerved the Russians.. Nor have they commented on this latest incident.

The attacks on Russian soil have affected ammunition and fuel depots, as well as the bridges used by the army to supply its forces and military recruiting stations.. There have also been assassinations of Russian-appointed officials in the occupied Ukrainian territory.

Three months ago, a Russian warplane accidentally dropped a bomb on Belgorod, injuring two people, in an incident in which Ukraine was initially suspected.

Meanwhile, the commander of Ukraine's armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said his troops were advancing into Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine and meeting stiff resistance as the war nears a year and a half.. “The enemy is clinging fiercely to every inch, conducting intense artillery and mortar fire,” it said in a statement.

The recent clashes have taken place in multiple locations along the more than 1,000-kilometer (more than 600-mile) front, where Ukraine deployed its newly acquired Western weapons to drive off Kremlin forces.. However, it is attacking without vital air support and is facing a deeply entrenched enemy.

A Western official said on Thursday that Ukraine had gotten a strong push in the southeast.. Putin acknowledged that the fighting has intensified there, but insisted that the kyiv offensive failed.

Zelensky posted a video late Thursday in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had taken Staromaiorske, in the Donetsk region.. Russian military bloggers said artillery fire against Ukrainian troops had effectively leveled the village and reported further shelling on Friday.. Capturing the village, which in 2014 had a population of 682, would give Ukraine a platform to push deeper into Russian-controlled territory, these bloggers noted.

The area has been a focus of Ukraine's counteroffensive since June, and its troops have previously captured other villages while slowly advancing through extensive Russian minefields.. It has not been possible to verify the claims of either party about what is happening in the war zone.. Syrskyi said fighting targeting the enemy's artillery as well as its command and control structure is a priority as his troops probe Russian lines for weaknesses.

“Under these conditions, it is crucial to make timely management decisions in response to the current situation and take steps to maneuver forces and resources, moving units and troops to areas where success is evident or withdrawing them from enemy fire,” he said. Russia is trying to hold on to territory it controls in the four provinces it illegally annexed in September: Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk.