KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine launched a barrage of drones across Russia overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Saturday, in attacks that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure.

Fifty drones were shot down by air defences over eight Russian regions, including 26 over the country’s western Belgorod region close to the Ukrainian border. Two people — a woman with a broken leg and the man caring for her — died during the barrage, after explosions sparked a blaze that set their home alight, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on social media.

Drones were also reportedly destroyed over the Bryansk, Kursk, Tula, Smolensk, Ryazan, Kaluga regions across Russia’s west and south, as well as in the Moscow region.

Ukrainian officials normally decline to comment about attacks on Russian soil. However, many of the drone strikes appeared to be directed toward Russia’s energy infrastructure.

The head of the Kaluga region, Vladislav Shapsha, said Saturday that a drone strike had sparked a blaze at an electrical substation, while Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz and Smolensk Gov. Vasily Anokhin also reported fires at fuel and energy complexes.

In recent months, Russian refineries and oil terminals have become priority targets of Ukrainian drone attacks, part of stepped-up assaults on Russian territory.

Ukrainian drone developers have been extending the weapons’ range for months, as Kyiv attempts to compensate for its battlefield disadvantage in weapons and troops. The unmanned aerial vehicles are also an affordable option while Ukraine waits for more U.S. military aid.

Moscow also said Friday evening that an American citizen known to have fought with Kremlin-backed separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 had died in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region.

Russell Bentley, 64, was no longer involved in military operations and previously worked for state-owned Russian news agency Sputnik. His death was confirmed by his former battalion and by Margarita Simonyan, head of the state-funded television channel RT, who described him as “a real American.” He used the call-sign “Texas” and had spent time in prison on charges of drug smuggling before leaving the United States.

No information has been released as to the cause of Bentley’s death, but local police had previously reported the American as missing on April 8.

Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with seven missiles, and air defences downed two missiles and three reconnaissance drones, the Ukrainian air force said Saturday.

Gov. Oleh Kiper, head of Ukraine’s Odesa region, said that ballistic missiles had damaged infrastructure overnight, but did not provide further details. Previous attacks on the Black Sea city on Friday damaged port infrastructure, including two food export terminals, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Russian shelling also killed a 50-year-old man in the city of Vovchansk, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, head of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

A 60-year-old woman was also injured after shelling struck a nine-story apartment block, he said.

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A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on Friday, police said. They narrowly escaped the attack but three bystanders were wounded.

Separately, an Afghan Taliban religious scholar was killed in an attack in the southwest of Pakistan the previous day.

The attack on the van happened when it was heading to an industrial area where the five Japanese nationals worked at Pakistan Suzuki Motors, local police chief Arshad Awan said. He said police escorting the Japanese returned fire after coming under attack, killing an accomplice of the suicide bomber whose remains were found at the scene of the attack.

12 ARRESTED IN CONNECTION TO PAKISTAN SUICIDE BOMBING THAT KILLED 5 CHINESE NATIONALS

“All the Japanese who were the target of the attack are safe,” Awan said.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack. In separate statements, they praised police for quickly responding and foiling the attack. They also vowed to eliminate terrorism and prayed for the speedy recovery of the wounded.

Images on local news channels showed a damaged van as police officers arrived at the scene. Awan said the three passersby who were wounded in the attack were in stable condition at a hospital.

Police were escorting the van after receiving reports about possible attacks on foreigners who are working in Pakistan on various Chinese-funded and other projects, said Tariq Mastoi, a senior police officer. He said a timely and quick response from the guards and police foiled the attack and both attackers were killed.

No one immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on a small separatist group or the Pakistani Taliban who have stepped up attacks on security forces in recent years. Insurgents have also targeted Chinese who are working in Pakistan on projects relating to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which includes a multitude of megaprojects such as road construction, power plants and agriculture.

In March, five Chinese and their Pakistani driver were killed when a suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle when they were heading to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan, where they worked.

However, Japanese working in Pakistan have not been the target of any such attacks.

Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan and the capital of southern Sindh province.

Separately, an Afghan Taliban religious scholar, Mohammad Omar Jan Akhundzada, was killed by gunmen inside a mosque in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, a local police officer Akram Ullah said Friday.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened on Thursday.

Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid denounced the killing of Akhundzada on Friday, saying Akhundzada taught at a jihadi seminary in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province and was a member of the Taliban oversight committee of Islamic scholars.

Many Afghan leaders and scholars had lived in Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan before the Afghan Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Most then went back and it was unclear why Akhundzada was still in Pakistan.

Killing of Noe Ramos Ferretiz in Tamaulipas and of Alberto Garcia in Oaxaca bring to 17 the number of slain candidates ahead of June 2 polls.

Two mayoral contenders have been found dead in a single day in Mexico, adding to the toll of slain candidates in what is shaping up to be the country’s most violent election on record.

The deaths reported in different parts of the country on Friday bring to 17 the number of candidates killed in the lead-up to the presidential, congressional and local polls on June 2.

In the northern state of Tamaulipas, authorities said they had launched a manhunt for the person who killed candidate Noe Ramos Ferretiz. He was seeking re-election as mayor of Ciudad Mante for a coalition of the opposition National Action Party and Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Local media reported he had been stabbed and posted photos showing a bloodied body lying on a sidewalk.

“We will not allow violence to decide these elections,” PRI party leader Alejandro Moreno wrote on social media, where he confirmed the “cowardly assassination” of Ramos Ferretiz.

The second slain candidate, Alberto Garcia, was found dead a day after he was reported missing. He was running for mayor of San Jose Independencia in the southern state of Oaxaca.

The state electoral board condemned the death of Garcia, who went missing along with his wife, the current mayor of San Jose Independencia and and who was found alive. The board called Garcia’s death a “killing”, and said such crimes “should not occur during elections”.

Bodyguards for candidates

Violence linked to organised crime in Mexico has long killed politicians from various parties, especially those who hold or are seeking regional positions.

Drug cartels have often carried out such assassination attempts in a bid to control local police or extort money from municipal governments.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador acknowledged in early April that the cartels often seek to determine who will serve as mayor – either by running their own candidates or eliminating potential rivals.

“They make an agreement and say, ‘this person is going to be mayor; we don’t want anyone else to register to run’, and anybody who does, well, they know [what to expect],” he said.

The recent slayings have prompted the government to provide bodyguards for about 250 candidates, while those running for municipal positions – the most endangered – are the last in line for security.

Earlier this month, candidate Bertha Gaytan was shot dead on the first day of her campaign. She was running for mayor of Celaya, a city in the north-central state of Guanajuato.

Also in April, the mayor of Churumuco, a town in the western state of Michoacan, was shot dead at a taco restaurant in the state capital, Morelia.

In late February, in another town in Michoacan, two mayoral hopefuls were shot dead within hours of each other.