Kyiv has regularly launched drones into Russia during Moscow's military offensive in Ukraine, now in its third year.

"Air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed over the territories of Belgorod region (one drone), Kursk region (two drones), Volgograd region (three drones) and Rostov region (41 drones)," the Russian army said on social media.

The southern Rostov region is a hub for the Russian army to plan its military operations in Ukraine.

Rostov governor Vasily Golubev said on social media that a drone attack had hit the city of Taganrog, on the Azov Sea near a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine.

He said a rescue worker was wounded but there were "no dead".

Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region, which lies further north and also borders Ukraine, said a clinic had been damaged in the main city of Kursk.

He posted a video of himself outside "polyclinic number 6 in Kursk". The top of the green-painted building was visibly damaged.

"Luckily, everyone is alive," Starovoyt said, adding that medics had evacuated patients from a nearby hospital.

Kursk is a city of around 440,000 people, around 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Ukraine border.