Ukraine announced on Monday that it had shot down 13 Iranian-made explosive drones out of 15 launched by Russia overnight, the delivery of Western air defense systems helping Kyiv to deal more effectively with this threat for several weeks.
“Russian invaders attacked Ukraine with Shahed-131/136 from the north (Russia’s Bryansk region),” the Ukrainian Air Force said.
In total, “15 drone launches were recorded and 13 Shahed were destroyed”, according to the same source.
The Ukrainian authorities have not reported any human or material damage caused by the two drones which were not shot down.
According to the Kiev military administration, drones were launched in particular on the Ukrainian capital but all were shot down and there were no casualties or damage.
Since October and after several setbacks on the ground, Moscow has begun to frequently target so-called “essential” Ukrainian infrastructure, in particular energy, depriving millions of inhabitants without electricity during the winter.
The frequency of these attacks has, however, slowed down in recent weeks as Ukraine has strengthened its air defense capabilities and the West has already supplied, or will deliver, modern systems to Kyiv (NASAMS, IRIS-T, Aspide 2000, Hawk, Patriot…).
Last week, an attack involving 14 drones – including 11 shot down – however killed two people, rescuers, in Khmelnytsky (west).