Russian forces surprised Ukraine last morning with the launch against several regions in the east, south, center and west of the country of a total of 38 Shahed kamikaze drones, in what is the largest attack with these unmanned devices that Russia has been acquiring from Iran since September 30.
Of the almost forty drones fired by Russia last night, Ukrainian air defenses were only able to shoot down 24, which represents a much lower percentage of interceptions than usual. In the aforementioned attack on September 30, Russia launched a total of 40 shaheds, of of which 30 were shot down by Ukraine.
In other drone attacks launched by the Russians in October, the interception ratio exceeded 80 and even 90%, sometimes approaching one hundred percent. As Ukrainian military analyst Alexander Kovalenko wrote on his popular Telegram channel, the low The percentage of drones shot down in last night’s attack is due, in part, to the fact that they were launched with a different trajectory than that chosen on other occasions.
Another factor, the expert explained, is that a good part of last night’s drones were directed against areas less protected against air attacks. In a message published after the drone attack last morning, President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted on the need for Ukraine to strengthen its air defenses, especially in the face of winter. According to Zelensky, Russian forces “will try to do more damage “as winter approaches.
Ukraine fears a repeat of the intense bombing campaign against power and thermal plants that in the fall of 2022 and during last winter left millions of Ukrainians without light and heating for weeks. The interceptions of the 24 drones shot down last night, the Ukrainian president said, occurred over the regions of Kharkiv (northeast), Zaporizhzhia (southeast), Kherson, Mikolayiv and Odesa (south), Kiev (north), Kirovohrad (center) and Vinitsia , Khmelnytskyy and Lviv (west).
In the Lviv oblast, which is located in the far west of Ukraine and is one of the regions furthest from the front, drones launched by Russia have hit five “critical infrastructures,” according to regional authorities, without giving more details about the incidents. targets hit. In the city of Kharkiv, capital of the homonymous region in northeastern Ukraine, drones destroyed the headquarters of an “educational institution” and caused damage to a residence for internally displaced people and a gas station, reported the mayor, Igor Terejov. Several residential buildings also suffered damage.