MOSCOW/KYIV — Russia and Ukraine continued to trade attacks over the weekend, after peace talks were postponed due to tensions in the Middle East.

Russian air defense systems shot down 280 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

According to the ministry, the drones were shot down between 11 am and 9 pm Moscow time over the regions of Bryansk, Kaluga, Belgorod, Tver, Smolensk, Kursk, Krasnodar and Moscow.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that as of late afternoon, 31 drones had been downed on the approach to the Russian capital on Saturday. Russia's aviation authorities brought in temporary flight restrictions at three of Moscow's international airports — Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky.

Meanwhile, a Russian drone attack on an ambulance in the northeastern Kharkiv region early on Sunday killed two medics, local police said.

A Ukrainian drone caused a fire at an oil depot in Russia's southern Krasnodar region overnight, regional authorities said.

The United States has postponed the peace talks planned last week between the two sides due to the conflict in the Middle East, in which the US and Israeli missiles and bombs rained on Iran, prompting retaliatory strikes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on Kyiv's Western partners to pay "one hundred percent attention" to the need to boost the production of air defense missiles.

Earlier last week, Russian and Ukrainian officials both claimed front-line progress, with Ukraine saying it pushed Moscow's forces back across places on the front line and the Kremlin insisting Russia's special military operation is making progress.

Agencies - Xinhua