Ukrainian air defense downs 24 Russian drones, Kyiv says

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian air defenses shot down 24 out of 52 drones launched by Russia during overnight attacks on eight regions across Ukraine, the air force said Saturday.

It said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that 25 Shahed drones had fallen on their own and three others had flown toward Russia and Belarus. There were no reports of anybody being hurt in the attacks or of any major damage being caused.

Ukraine uses electronic warfare as well as mobile hunting groups and aircraft defenses to repel frequent Russian drone and missile strikes.

Air alerts sounded several times during the overnight drone attacks, with many people rushing to shelters in the middle of the night.

In the capital, Kyiv, where alerts lasted for about four hours, it was the fourth drone attack this week, officials said.

All drones targeting the city were downed and no major damage was reported, Kyiv city officials said.

Ukrainian air defenses also shot down Russian drones in the Poltava, Cherkasy, Kyrovohrad and Dnipropetrovsk regions in central Ukraine, in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the north and the Mykolayiv region in the south.

Regional officials in the Cherkasy region said the drones’ debris had damaged several private houses.

The Russian forces also launched five missiles during the attack, the Ukrainian air force said, but gave no other details.

Meanwhile, five people were killed and 46 injured in a Ukrainian attack on the southwestern Russian city of Belgorod late Friday, the local governor said. Vyacheslav Gladkov said that 37 of the injured, including seven children, were hospitalized.

Video from a car dashboard, posted on social media and purporting to demonstrate the attack, showed another car being blown up while moving on the road. Seconds later an explosion is seen on the other side of the road. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video.

Russia’s Investigation Committee said on its Telegram channel that it had initiated a criminal case into the Belgorod attack.

Authorities also reported that a woman was injured Saturday during Ukrainian shelling of the border town of Shebekino in the Belgorod region.

Ukraine has staged frequent attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions in recent months. The city has been the focal point of the attacks.

Ukraine and Russia say they do not deliberately target civilians in the war that began when Russia sent thousands of troops into its smaller neighbor in February 2022. Moscow has called the invasion a “special military operation.”
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