Moscow/kyiv (EFE) .- Russia has launched a wave of attacks with kamikaze drones, mainly against kyiv, while the intensity of the fighting on the eastern fronts continues.
As reported by the General Staff on Monday, the Ukrainian forces have shot down eleven Iranian-made kamikaze drones last night, in response to a Russian attack with fourteen unmanned aircraft (UAV) with explosives.
“The Russian invaders used fourteen Shahed UAVs on the territory of Ukraine”, of which eleven “were shot down by Ukrainian defenders,” the military command said today on its Facebook account.
Nine of these eleven drones were shot down in the airspace around Kiev, according to Serhii Popko, head of the Military Administration of the Ukrainian capital, where the night air alert lasted for five and a half hours.
This air attack, in which according to the first information there were no victims, joins two others also registered during the night in the city of Zaporizhia, directed against non-residential civilian infrastructures.
Although the damage is being assessed, the city council has reported on Telegram that there have been no victims, but significant material damage.
In addition, air strike alerts have been issued in the Kiev and Chernigov regions, in the Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Donetsk oblasts, and in areas of the Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts.
Air defense was also activated in the Brovary and Boryspil districts, according to official Ukrainian information.
Donetsk Russian leader claims Russian forces advancing
On the battlefront, the acting leader imposed by Russia in the Ukrainian Donetsk region, annexed last September, Denis Pushilin, said today that Russian forces “improve their positions” in the direction of Avdiivka, north of the capital. regional.
“The Avdiivka address is important for us in Donetsk. There we have certain successes. The units of the 1st Army Corps are advancing, improving their positions, ”he declared on Russian television.
Pushilin indicated that “it is still early to talk about specific locations, but we see considerable improvements.”
He also referred to the situation in Artiomovsk (Russian name for the city of Bakhmut), which Russian forces have been trying to take for more than seven months.
“Over the last few days we have seen quite considerable changes in the framework of the release operation. It is about the Artiomovsk front, which is now in the center of attention, ”he asserted.
The pro-Russian leader stressed that the seizure of the Berhivka and Yahinde towns would allow Russian troops to advance in the direction of Bogdanivka and Jromivka, which “will create favorable conditions to surround the enemy and tighten the siege.”
In addition, he criticized the blowing up by the Ukrainian Army of a dam in Bakhmut, which he described as “hasty and little calculated”, since “it did not significantly affect the advance of our units”.
Pushilin added that the number of civilians remaining in Bakhmut is currently unknown, but acknowledged that “they are in very difficult conditions, which is seen in the state of the people we managed to evacuate.”
He also referred to the Russian advance in the eastern city of Donetsk, noting that the capture of Mariinka is taking more work than expected.