Ukrainian officials: Russia launched 21 lethal attack drones, 16 shot down

And Ukrainian officials say Russia launched 21 lethal attack drones overnight, 16 of which were shot down. The attacks came before Chinese leader Xi Jinping had even left Moscow after a three-day trip where he met with Vladimir Putin. The two leaders proclaimed they want to make peace in Ukraine. Foreign correspondent Tom Sufi Burj is in cave with more. Tom, an interesting choice of words given what we're learning now. What do we know about this latest wave of Russian attacks? Yeah, the most brazen attack, Diane, was in the southern city of Zaporozhye, hitting an apartment block right in the city centre. More than a dozen people injured, including children, at least two people in a serious condition.

Incredibly, no one killed in that missile attack. The Russians also launching lethal drone attacks. Those Iranian-made drones across the country in this region of Kiev and a target hit to the southeast of Kiev in a town. Now, it's not clear in that case what was the specific target. They hit an apartment building, but the Russians are claiming that Ukrainian military personnel were inside. The Ukrainians disputing that. We're in a cemetery just on the edge of Kiev.

You can see the military graves behind me. One of those soldiers killed in Bakhmut. That is the city really that's seeing the most fierce fighting right now in eastern Ukraine. President Zelensky going into that area within the last 24 hours, meeting troops, really in a message of defiance on the wake of that summit from President Xi and President Putin. Just as those leaders were calling for some kind of peace proposal, Russia was firing missiles and drones into Ukrainian territory once again. Tom, meanwhile, a group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers are wrapping up training on the Patriot surface to air missile system in Oklahoma. So when could we see that deployed on the battlefield and how much of a difference would that make? Yeah, that's right, Diane.

So 65 Ukrainian troops, they're training at Fort Still, Oklahoma, coming to an end. That means that the Patriot systems could be in Ukraine within a matter of weeks, according to US officials. And that's happened more quickly than anticipated. Just because those Ukrainian troops have surpassed expectations, they've once again the Ukrainian military proved themselves to be adept at adapting to new, highly complex systems. Those Patriots are going to make a huge difference. They are at the high end of all the different types of air defense systems, which the West have given Ukraine, and they're going to make a big difference protecting Ukrainian cities. We've also got a big update on US tanks.

The US has changed its strategy. It was going to provide the latest version of the Abrams tanks to the Ukrainian military, but actually they're going to provide an older version now. The reason being, it means they can get those older refurbished versions much more quickly into Ukraine. Those Abrams tanks could be here by the fall. Diane? Zufi Burrage and Keev, Tom, thank you. Stay safe. Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. If you'd like to get more videos, show highlights and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel. And don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts. Thanks for watching.

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