Ukraine says it has repelled another nightly attack by Russian explosive drones

Ukraine announced on Friday that it had repelled an overnight attack with explosive drones, launched by Russia less than 24 hours after new massive strikes on energy infrastructure, depriving millions of Ukrainians of electricity.

Since October and a series of military setbacks on the front lines, Russia has adopted the tactic of hitting Ukrainian power plants and transformers with its missiles and drones, plunging the population into cold and darkness in the dead of winter.

Thursday’s attack, which used dozens of missiles, was the 10th of its kind and was followed by a nightly salvo of Shahed explosive drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, which claimed on Friday morning to have shot down all 16 manufacturing aircraft. Iranian that had been released. .

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said seven of them attacked the capital and all were destroyed. Falling debris damaged the windows of two buildings in a southwestern district of Kyiv, but no casualties were reported.

According to the Ukrainian presidency, other drones were shot down in the Cherkasy and Dnipro regions in the center of the country.

In a message posted on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the war was “tough” but said he was convinced “that Russian aggression would fail.”

70 missiles in one day

According to an updated report, 58 of the 70 cruise missiles fired by Russia were shot down on Thursday. A total of four civilians were killed and eight others were injured.

The Russian Defense Ministry told him on Friday that his “massive strikes” the day before had “hit all intended targets.”

Power outages remained numerous, while power has already been heavily rationed across the country for weeks.

The millions of Ukrainians without generators are preparing to celebrate the New Year without electricity, sometimes without water or heating and under curfews.

According to the electricity company Ukrenergo, the “consequences of the damage on the operation of the network are less than what the enemy expected (…) but the situation in the south and east of the country remains difficult.”