Russia has launched one of its largest batteries of drones against Ukraine in recent months, targeting Kiev and other cities and starting a fire at an industrial facility in the western region of Ternopil, officials said on Wednesday (16).
Air defenses shot down 68 of the 136 drones used in the attack, the air force said in its readout. Two drones returned to Russia and 64 were missing, possibly after being intercepted by electronic warfare systems, he added.
Two drones struck unidentified targets, according to the report on the attack, which occurred hours before President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed his plan to defend against Russia’s invasion.
Nearly 50 firefighters put out a “large-scale fire” in the Ternopil region, the military administration wrote on messaging app Telegram.
“There were no injuries,” he said, declining to name the affected facility.
The air force said Russia also fired two missiles at the regions north of Chernihiv and east of Donetsk, but did not say what happened to them. There was no immediate comment from Russia on its latest attack.
Police in neighboring Moldova said debris from what appeared to be a missile was found north of the country, about 4 km from its border with Ukraine’s central Vinnytsia region. It was not immediately clear whether it was related to the latest or a previous attack.
The drone attack caused a fire at a private residence in the region outside the capital and damaged several other buildings, according to Governor Ruslan Kravchenko.
The region was on air alert for more than 12 hours because of the attack. Kravchenko said there were no casualties.
All drones that targeted Kiev overnight were destroyed and there were no reports of damage or injuries, said Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration.
Russian strikes have hit Ukraine’s energy facilities this year, and long blackouts and other outages will almost certainly make the impending winter difficult for ordinary Ukrainians far from the front lines where Russian troops have been advancing.
The governors of the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv reported power cuts on Wednesday, with energy authorities in the Mykolaiv region saying 272,000 consumers were affected.
Regional governor Vitaliy Kim said the sweeping outage was not the result of the overnight attack and that authorities were working to restore power in the coming hours.
This content was originally published in Russia attacks Ukraine with more than 130 drones, says Kiev on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
