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KIEV: Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 32 of the 35 drones launched by Russia early Tuesday, most of them in the Kiev region, in a strike that exposed gaps in the country’s air protection after nearly 16 months of war, officials said. Officials said that Russian forces mostly targeted the area around the Ukrainian capital in a nighttime drone attack that lasted nearly three hours, but that about two dozen of them were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses in the area.
The attack was part of a broader bombing of Ukrainian territory that extended as far as the Lviv region in the west of the country, near Poland.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ihnat, said that Shahed drones had arrived in Lviv due to the inability of air defense assets to cover such a wide area.
He explained that air defense systems are mostly intended to protect major cities and key infrastructure facilities, including nuclear power plants and the front line.
“There is a general lack of air defense assets to cover a country like Ukraine with a dome like Israel,” he said, referring to Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.
In the Lviv region, the Russian strike hit an important infrastructure facility, starting a fire, according to Maksim Kozitsky, the governor of Lviv.
Russia also hit the south Zaporizhia Ukraine region ballistic missiles.
Ukraine’s air defenses have been bolstered with advanced weaponry from its Western allies, giving it a recently higher success rate against incoming drones and missiles.
Previously, winter bombing by Russia had damaged Ukraine’s energy supply, though quick fixes have stymied the Kremlin’s efforts.
The recent air strikes behind the Ukrainian front line coincide with the early stages of Ukraine’s counter-offensive, as it aims to drive the Kremlin’s forces out of territories occupied since Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022.
Valeriy Zalogny, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said the counterattack faced heavily mined terrain and reinforced defensive fortifications.
Russia has also mobilized a large number of reservists, he said in a post accompanying a video of him visiting frontline positions with other senior officers.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine said that fierce battles were taking place in eastern Ukraine, around Bakhmut, Liman, Avdiivka and Marinka. Russia bombed 15 towns and villages in the eastern Donetsk region, injuring five civilians, including three in Chasev Yar near Pakhmut, according to Ukraine’s presidential office.
“Despite the fierce resistance of the occupiers,” Zaluzhny’s post read, “our soldiers are doing their best to liberate Ukrainian lands. The operation is continuing as planned.”
Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svetan said that Russia had transferred about 20,000 soldiers from areas in the Kherson region after the floods caused by the recent collapse of the Kakhovka Dam made it impossible for Ukraine to launch an attack there.
The flood eliminated the need for Kremlin forces to protect about 300km of the more than 1,000km front line, according to Svetan, and allowed Moscow to increase its military density in the Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions where intense fighting is taking place.
Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to breach the dam earlier this month while it was under Russian control, according to information obtained by the Associated Press.
Svetan said the Zaporizhia region appears to be the focus of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, which seeks to smash Russia’s land corridor with Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
In other developments, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known by its acronym SVR, has called on Ukrainian diplomats stationed abroad to come to Russia with their families to avoid returning to Ukraine.
She claimed that many Ukrainian diplomats are not ready to return home after their tours and want refugee status in the European Union and the Asian countries in which they have worked.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also claimed that Ukraine plans to use US-made HIMARS missiles and UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to attack Russian territory, including Crimea.
He warned that the use of these missiles on targets outside the current war zone “will lead to immediate strikes on decision-making centers on the territory of Ukraine.” He did not go into detail nor provide any evidence to support his claim.
The attack was part of a broader bombing of Ukrainian territory that extended as far as the Lviv region in the west of the country, near Poland.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ihnat, said that Shahed drones had arrived in Lviv due to the inability of air defense assets to cover such a wide area.
He explained that air defense systems are mostly intended to protect major cities and key infrastructure facilities, including nuclear power plants and the front line.
“There is a general lack of air defense assets to cover a country like Ukraine with a dome like Israel,” he said, referring to Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.
In the Lviv region, the Russian strike hit an important infrastructure facility, starting a fire, according to Maksim Kozitsky, the governor of Lviv.
Russia also hit the south Zaporizhia Ukraine region ballistic missiles.
Ukraine’s air defenses have been bolstered with advanced weaponry from its Western allies, giving it a recently higher success rate against incoming drones and missiles.
Previously, winter bombing by Russia had damaged Ukraine’s energy supply, though quick fixes have stymied the Kremlin’s efforts.
The recent air strikes behind the Ukrainian front line coincide with the early stages of Ukraine’s counter-offensive, as it aims to drive the Kremlin’s forces out of territories occupied since Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022.
Valeriy Zalogny, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said the counterattack faced heavily mined terrain and reinforced defensive fortifications.
Russia has also mobilized a large number of reservists, he said in a post accompanying a video of him visiting frontline positions with other senior officers.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine said that fierce battles were taking place in eastern Ukraine, around Bakhmut, Liman, Avdiivka and Marinka. Russia bombed 15 towns and villages in the eastern Donetsk region, injuring five civilians, including three in Chasev Yar near Pakhmut, according to Ukraine’s presidential office.
“Despite the fierce resistance of the occupiers,” Zaluzhny’s post read, “our soldiers are doing their best to liberate Ukrainian lands. The operation is continuing as planned.”
Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svetan said that Russia had transferred about 20,000 soldiers from areas in the Kherson region after the floods caused by the recent collapse of the Kakhovka Dam made it impossible for Ukraine to launch an attack there.
The flood eliminated the need for Kremlin forces to protect about 300km of the more than 1,000km front line, according to Svetan, and allowed Moscow to increase its military density in the Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions where intense fighting is taking place.
Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to breach the dam earlier this month while it was under Russian control, according to information obtained by the Associated Press.
Svetan said the Zaporizhia region appears to be the focus of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, which seeks to smash Russia’s land corridor with Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
In other developments, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known by its acronym SVR, has called on Ukrainian diplomats stationed abroad to come to Russia with their families to avoid returning to Ukraine.
She claimed that many Ukrainian diplomats are not ready to return home after their tours and want refugee status in the European Union and the Asian countries in which they have worked.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also claimed that Ukraine plans to use US-made HIMARS missiles and UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to attack Russian territory, including Crimea.
He warned that the use of these missiles on targets outside the current war zone “will lead to immediate strikes on decision-making centers on the territory of Ukraine.” He did not go into detail nor provide any evidence to support his claim.
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