On the night of Monday to Tuesday, “the launches of 38 Shahed (drones) (…) were recorded,” the Ukrainian Air Force wrote on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Tuesday, September 26, that Russia attacked Ukraine on the night of Monday to Tuesday with 38 Shahed drones and 26 of these aircraft were shot down. At the same time, Moscow declared that the American Abrams tanks delivered to Kiev would “burn” and that their arrival on the battlefield would “not change the balance of forces” between Russian and Ukrainian troops. Franceinfo takes stock of the day’s highlights.
Ukraine was attacked by around forty drones
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, “the shoot-downs of 38 Shaheds (…) were registered,” the Air Force wrote on Telegram in its daily report, stating that Ukrainian defenses had destroyed 26 of these Iranian-made machines.
The Odessa region (south) is one of the positions attacked by Russian forces during the night. The attack lasted two hours, regional governor Oleg Kiper reported on Telegram, saying “most of the drones” were shot down. “Unfortunately, the port infrastructure in Izmail district has been affected,” he said, regretting two injured truck drivers, one of whom was hospitalized. A checkpoint and warehouses as well as around 30 trucks were damaged, he added.
Abrams tanks will ‘burn’ in Ukraine, Moscow says
“Abrams tanks are serious weapons,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday in response to the arrival of American Abrams tanks in Ukraine. “They will burn too,” he told the press, repeating Vladimir Putin’s warning upon the delivery of the first Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
“All this cannot in any way affect the essence of the ‘special military operation’” or “its outcome,” Dmitry Peskov assured. “There is no (…) one type of weapon that can change the balance of power on the battlefield.”
Former Russian President Medvedev in eastern Ukraine
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, number two on his country’s Security Council, announced on Tuesday that he had visited a military training area in eastern Ukraine. “I visited the training ground near the front on the territory of the DNR (self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic) on the orders of the president,” Vladimir Putin said in a video posted on the Russian social network VKontakte.
Dmitry Medvedev also announced that the Russian army has recruited more than 325,000 people since the beginning of the year, 45,000 more than the previous figures from the beginning of September.
Uncertainty over the death of a Russian commander
The Russian Defense Ministry released a picture on Tuesday showing Viktor Sokolov, commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, taking part in a video conference after Ukraine claimed to have killed him. In the photo, the official appears on a large screen alongside other senior military officials attending a meeting chaired by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. A press release states that this meeting took place on Tuesday. In a video released later, the commander appears in the frame several times without speaking.
Ukraine on Friday attacked the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, a Russian-annexed city in Crimea. On Monday, the Ukrainian military said Commander Sokolov was among about 30 officers killed in the attack. After the images were released on Tuesday, Ukrainian special forces said they were “clarifying” their information.