Russian forces fired 24 kamikaze drones this morning against Ukrainian territory and killed three civilians in rocket attacks directed against the part under kyiv control of the southeastern province of Zaporizhzhia.
Of the total number of Shahed drones launched by Russia, Ukrainian air defenses managed to shoot down 17, according to the report provided by the Ukrainian Air Force.
The interceptions occurred over the territory of the regions of Odessa and Mikoláiv (south), Kirovograd (center), Khmelnytskyy and Zhitomir (west).
According to local authorities, a gas station and transport logistics infrastructure have been damaged in the attack in the Odessa region.
Siege of Kharkiv
On the other hand, the Kiev Air Force has reported the launch by Russia of a Kh-59 missile that has also been shot down in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast (center).
In his address to the nation on Sunday night, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of the increase in recent weeks in Russian airstrikes against several provinces of the country, especially against the city of Kharkiv, located in northeastern Ukraine, along on the border with Russia, and the second largest in the country after kyiv.
“We are looking for options to provide Kharkiv with better air defense, and this is the task of both the military and all Ukrainian diplomats,” Zelensky said.
The president insisted that Ukraine does not have sufficient means to defend itself from Russian air attacks and asked its allies to accelerate the shipment of this type of material.
Ukraine denies an attack on Zaporizhia reported by the IAEA
Last night Ukraine denied its responsibility in any military operation against the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe and occupied by Russia since March 2022, after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) denounced this Sunday a direct attack with drones against infrastructure.
“Ukraine is not involved in any armed provocation on the premises of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant illegally occupied by Russia,” spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) Andri Yusov told the Kiev publication Ukrainska Pravda on Sunday evening.
The IAEA had previously reported a drone attack whose explosions caused “minor” damage to one of the plant’s six reactors.
In response to the statement from this organization, the representative of Ukrainian military espionage accused Russia of carrying out “simulated” attacks on the plant, of deploying troops and military material there and of having mined the facilities of this plant located in the occupied part. from the province of Zaporizhzhia, in the southeast of Ukraine.
Yusov also reproached the Russian occupation forces for putting “the nuclear infrastructure, the civilian population in danger” and the whole of Europe with their presence at the plant, which is under constant surveillance by IAEA experts due to the risk of war-related incidents leading to a nuclear accident.
Since the beginning of the occupation of the plant, Russia and Ukraine have systematically accused each other of using the plant for military purposes and thus threatening nuclear security in the area and throughout the region.
BY: TTU
