Russian forces fired eight missiles and 363 “Shahed“ drones last night and decoy drones against Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force said today, adding that air defenses failed to stop only four drones and shot down six cruise missiles, the Associated Press (AP) reported, BTA reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said that 39 Ukrainian drones were shot down last night, including 19 in the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region.
Long-range drone strikes have become a hallmark of the war, which has entered its fourth year, the AP notes. The race between the two sides to develop increasingly advanced and deadly drones has turned the war into a testing ground for new weapons.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that 359 drones were shot down or their signals were jammed. The Ukrainian attack forced three Russian airports to temporarily close, officials said. Authorities also briefly closed the Crimean bridge overnight as drones headed toward Crimea. Russia did not report any significant damage or casualties in the attacks.
Kherson region Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram that a Russian attack had damaged energy infrastructure in the region, Reuters reported. He said the attack on a "key energy facility" had caused power outages in some villages in the region, which is close to the front line.
Russia is producing thousands of the Shahed drones, which are based on an Iranian model, at a plant in the republic of Tatarstan, the AP reported. It has modernized the Shahed with its own innovations, including larger warheads.
They are called kamikaze drones because they descend on targets nose down and explode on impact, like a rocket. The constant roar of the Shahed drones’ engines is discouraging to anyone they pass over, as no one on the ground knows exactly when or where the drone will strike.
Due to its disadvantage in terms of firepower and population, Ukraine has also developed its own high-tech drones, including long-range naval drones, and has trained thousands of drone pilots.
Smaller, short-range drones are used on both sides of the battlefield and in areas near the approximately 1,000-kilometer front line. These drones, equipped with cameras that allow pilots to monitor targets in real time, also strike civilian areas.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a report published yesterday that short-range drone attacks had killed at least 395 civilians and wounded 2,635 people since the start of the war through April. Almost 90 percent of the attacks were carried out by Russian forces, the report said.