Ukraine claims 30 drones downed in major Russian UAV attack

KYIV (AFP): The Ukrainian military claimed on Thursday that Russia had launched a “massive” drone attack overnight and that more than 30 Russian unmanned aerial vehicles had been destroyed.

Nataliya Gumenyuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian southern military command, said UAVs were intercepted over Black Sea coastal regions and also further inland.

Russia “does not stop the pressure and searching for new tactics: namely, with the use of mass attacks”, Gumenyuk said on the messaging platform Telegram.

“Tonight, several groups of strike UAVs were launched… air defence worked along almost the entire southern direction — in Odesa, Mykolaiv regions. Also, much higher north — the enemy aimed its attacks on central Ukraine,” she said.

“The consequences of the attack are being clarified now, because it was indeed a massive one.

“However, the air defence work was quite effective. Over 30 UAVs were destroyed.”

Since July, when Moscow pulled out of a UN-brokered deal allowing safe grain shipments via the Black Sea, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine’s grain-exporting infrastructure in the southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.