KYIV, Oct 20: Russian air defences shot down more than 100 Ukrainian drones Sunday over Russia’s western regions, Moscow officials said, while 17 people were injured in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih in a ballistic missile attack.
Such large-scale aerial attacks are still relatively rare over Russia 2 1/2 years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Russian Defence Ministry said 110 drones were destroyed in the overnight barrage against seven Russian regions. Many targeted Russia’s border region of Kursk, where 43 drones were reportedly shot down.
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Social media footage appeared to show air defences at work over the city of Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region, close to a factory producing explosives. Local Governor Gleb Nikitin wrote on social media Sunday that four firefighters were injured repelling a drone attack over the city’s industrial zone, but did not give further details.
Meanwhile, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces posted on Telegram that it targeted Dzerzhinsk’s state-owned Sverdlov factory, which it said had been making chemical components for artillery ammunition and aerial bombs. It also said a drone sparked a fire at a military airfield in the Lipetsk region. The comments couldn’t be independently verified by the Associated Press.
A similar attack at the end of September saw Russia’s Ministry of Defensereport the destruction of 125 drones across seven regions.
In Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, 17 people were injured after two Russian ballistic missiles hit the city late Saturday evening, officials said Sunday. The attack damaged homes and businesses, said local administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 49 drones and two Iskander-M ballistic missiles in total overnight. It said 31 of the drones were shot down over 12 regions, including the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, while another 13 disappeared from radar – suggesting they were knocked out by electronic defences.
In a statement on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had launched some 800 guided aerial bombs and more than 500 attack drones over Ukraine in the past week alone.
“Every day, Russia strikes our cities and communities. It is deliberate terror from the enemy against our people,” he said, renewing calls for continued air support from the country’s allies.
“United in defence, the world can stand against this targeted terror.” (AP)
