UPDATED: All Russia-launched drones, cruise missile downed -Ukraine Air Force

Oct 23 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s defence systems destroyed all air weapons Russia launched overnight, Ukraine’s Air Force said early on Monday.

The Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app that a total of 14 attack drones, including 13 Iranian-made Shahed drones and one unspecified drone, as well asone cruise missile were all destroyed.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will visit Tehran on Monday for talks with regional counterparts, his ministry’s spokesperson has confirmed.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported earlier that the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia had been invited to the talks. Western countries have accused Tehran of supporting Russia’s offensive in Ukraine by providing it with large quantities of drones and other weaponry.

The conflict in the middle-east must not weaken the support in the EU for Ukraine, the Lithuanian foreign minister has said.

On his way into a foreign affairs ministers summit in Luxembourg, Gabrielius Landsbergis expressed concern about political energy being drawn away from Ukraine because of the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

On Sunday Russian forces claimed  to have foiled several attempts by Ukrainian units to cross the Dnipro River in the southern region of Kherson over the past day. Russia’s defence ministry has said that what it calls Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance” teams were stopped while trying to cross the river near the villages of Pridniprovske, Tiahynka and Krynky.