Russia continued drone attacks on Ukraine

“This is the sixth airstrike on Kiev since the beginning of the month,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the city’s military administration, said on Saturday. Iranian Shahed drones flew in waves towards Kiev from different directions. There were no casualties or major damage, Popko said.

The Ukrainian Air Force said on the short message service Telegram that 30 of a total of 31 drones had been intercepted and destroyed during the night. They were shot down across eleven regions in the center, north and south of the country. They were Shahed drones. Fighter jets, anti-aircraft units and mobile groups of drone hunters were deployed to intercept them.

Drones over the capital

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian drones had flown over the outskirts of the capital and targeted areas near the city center. Anti-aircraft defense was intensive in the Darnytsky district on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. There were also explosions in Podil opposite, one of Kiev’s oldest districts.

Reuters reporters reported loud explosions across Kiev shortly after midnight. Another series of explosions also rocked areas near Kiev’s central districts in the following 45 minutes.

Air alert for hours

In many regions of Ukraine, the nighttime air alert lasted about five hours. Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and regions are becoming increasingly common. According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian military is targeting the country’s electricity and energy infrastructure during and before the cold winter months. The government in Moscow has repeatedly denied attacking Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

Dozens of Russian attacks on the ground

Meanwhile, according to its leadership, the Ukrainian army repelled dozens of Russian attacks along the front in the east and south of the country on Saturday. In the evening report from the General Staff in Kiev there was talk of 71 battles – a slight decrease after 82 battles on Friday. The information cannot be independently verified, but allows conclusions to be drawn about the intensity of the fighting. The battles on the ground are accompanied by artillery fire and air strikes.

Most of the Russian attacks were again in the city of Avdiivka and the surrounding area in Donbass with 27 battles. They were repelled, it said without details. Russian troops have been trying for weeks to cut off the Ukrainian defenders in the city, which has been held since 2014. They suffer high losses, but advance solely due to the superior number of soldiers and technology. The Institute for War Studies (ISW) in the USA also spoke of Russian gains in territory in its report on Friday.

Defense instead of offense

In the Kupyansk sector of the front further north in the Kharkiv and Luhansk region, the Ukrainian military counted eleven battles near the village of Synkivka. According to ISW estimates, the Russian troops have been on the offensive there for days and are gaining ground.

Other focal points were the Bakhmut and Marjinka sections as well as the town of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine. There has been no mention of Ukraine’s own offensive actions in the reports for some time now. After the widespread failure of the summer offensive, the Kiev troops are now preparing for defense. Ukraine has been fending off a large-scale Russian invasion for almost 22 months. Including the Crimean peninsula, around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory is occupied by Russian soldiers.

info By clicking on the icon you can add the keyword to your topics.

info
By clicking on the icon you open your “my topics” page. They have of 15 keywords saved and would have to remove keywords.

info By clicking on the icon you can remove the keyword from your topics.

Add the topic to your topics.