Russian forces targeted Ukraine overnight with their biggest drone attack in weeks, part of what Ukrainian officials and military analysts say appears to be a campaign to wear down and probe Ukrainian air defenses ahead of winter.
Ukraine’s air forces said that Russia had used some 40 kamikaze drones and a cruise missile, adding that they had shot down the missile and more than half of the drones.
No casualties were reported, but local officials said that infrastructure facilities as well as residential and administrative buildings were hit by falling debris that caused large fires.
“As winter approaches, Russian terrorists will try to cause more harm,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a post on social media.
Data from the Ukrainian military shows that Russia has recently increased its drone assaults against Ukraine, targeting it with nearly 650 Iranian-made Shahed drones in the past two months, compared with about 450 in July and August.
Persons:
Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky
Locations:
Ukraine, Russia, Lviv, Ivano, Frankivsk