Russian drones struck Ukraine's southern city of Zaporizhzhia after Ukrainian forces launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia over the weekend, according to officials cited by the Associated Press.

The AP reported that the late-Sunday bombardment damaged apartment blocks, a university and a shopping centre in Zaporizhzhia, with five people wounded according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russia said its overnight attacks targeted logistics hubs, warehouses and ports.

The exchange followed what Moscow described as the destruction of 244 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and the Black Sea. Earlier reporting by the AP said the Ukrainian operation included hundreds of drones directed towards Moscow, which the city's mayor called the largest such attack on the capital.

The figures come from the parties to the conflict and are difficult to verify independently. They nevertheless show the changing geography of the war: long-range drones are allowing both sides to strike far beyond the front line while ground movement is increasingly constrained by surveillance and unmanned systems.

The attacks are taking place as world leaders arrive in New York for the UN General Assembly. Ukraine's president is expected to meet Trump, while Russian President Vladimir Putin is not due to attend. The immediate battlefield message is that the war is intensifying even as diplomacy searches for a route back in.