Kyiv said Thursday that Russian forces used nearly three dozen Iranian-designed drones to attack Ukraine overnight, while also firing guided missiles at the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
The aerial attack is the latest overnight barrage by Russian forces and comes after Ukraine’s foreign minister said his country’s priority was to gain control of Ukrainian airspace.
“The occupiers attacked with 33 Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk area and Kursk region of the Russian Federation,” Ukraine’s air force said in a statement.
It added that air defense systems had downed 22 of the drones and that Russian forces had also fired two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles from the Belgorod region.
Air defense systems in eastern, southern and central parts of the country downed the attack drones, Ukraine’s air force added.
Meanwhile, the head of the Kharkiv region announced that one civilian was killed and another injured in attacks on the region a day earlier.
“The shelling killed a 62-year-old woman who worked as a boiler room operator. A 63-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman were injured. Both were hospitalized and are in moderate condition,” he said.
Swathes of the Kharkiv region were captured by Russian forces early in the invasion but they were pushed back months later.