Air defense forces shoot down 31 Shahed drones overnight – Air Force

Destroyed Shahed drone (illustrative photo)
Destroyed Shahed drone (illustrative photo)

Russia attacked Ukraine with 34 Shahed UAVs and four S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles overnight, with air defense forces intercepting 31 enemy drones, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk reported on Telegram on March 23.

Russians launched drones from Kursk Oblast and Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea.

The 31 kamikaze drones were shot down over Poltava, Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson oblasts.

Read also: Ukraine downs 92 of 151 air targets during Russian mass missile strike

The Ukrainian Navy reported that it also had downed one Shahed-136.

The head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, Serhiy Lysak, wrote on Telegram that four Shaheds were shot down in the Nikopol and Synelnyky districts at night and in the early morning. He later clarified that another drone was shot down in the Kryvyi Rih district.

Read also: UN and EU condemn Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, call for accountability

On the evening of March 22, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported that the city was under attack by Shahed drones, and that at least three explosions had been reported. On the morning of March 23, the State Emergency Service reported that a three-story building caught fire as a result of the first strike. After rescuers and police had arrived at the scene, the Russian military struck again with a UAV – a common Russian technique known as a “double tap”, used to wide effect to murder aid workers in Syria.

Two employees of the SES and the National Police were injured.

The day before, the Russian military massively attacked Ukraine's critical infrastructure with 151 air strikes. Ukrainian defenders shot down 55 Shaheds, 35 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles, and two X-59 guided missiles.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine