According to Ukrainian authorities, the Russian army launched airstrikes on targets in the vicinity of the capital Kyiv on Thursday night. One community was shot, Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram, without naming the location. Rescue teams are on duty there. Some of the incoming missiles were intercepted. Air alerts were raised four times in the capital Kyiv on Wednesday.
The Russian army launched more than 20 Iranian Shahed-136 combat drones over southern Ukraine two hours before midnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Thursday. 19 of them were slaughtered, most in the Odessa region. This military information has not been independently verifiable.
Ukraine reports drone attack on power plant
According to authorities, a power plant in Sevastopol, on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, was attacked by a drone. The announcement was made by the city’s chief, Mikhail Raswoschaejew, on Thursday. During the night attack, a transformer was set on fire but was not connected to the grid at the time. No one was injured and there were no effects on the port city’s power supply.
The drone was intercepted as it approached the plant, the city manager wrote on Telegram and spoke of “minimal damage”. Sevastopol is important as a base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. There have been several explosions at military installations and drone attacks on the peninsula in recent months. Ukraine is not officially committed to this. But the incidents suggest that Kyiv has the ability to strike far behind the front lines.
British: Russia wants to distract
By appointing Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin as regional coordinator in the war against Ukraine, the Kremlin wants to deflect public criticism of President Vladimir Putin’s leadership, according to British estimates. “This move should lead to closer involvement of regional governors in Russia’s national security system,” the Defense Ministry in London said on Thursday, citing intelligence findings.
During the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the northeast and south of the country, there was rarely any clear criticism of the political leadership in Russia. “However, this will likely make it more difficult for the Kremlin to protect Russian society from the effects of the ‘military special operation’ in Ukraine,” he said in London. The Kremlin had already followed a similar approach during the corona pandemic. In Russia, problems are often blamed on local authorities. The Kremlin then acts as caretaker.