Ukrainian anti-air defense systems shot down 36 Iranian-made kamikaze drones last night over the sky over Kyiv aimed at critical infrastructure in the vicinity of the capital, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement after a long night in which the anti-aircraft alarms will sound in all the western regions of the country. “No one has reached their goal,” President Volodimir Zelensky announced this morning on his Telegram channel in a message in which he congratulated the country’s air defense forces on their “100%” success.
In the absence of progress on the ground, Russia persists in its strategy of air operations against Ukraine in order to exhaust the Ukrainian defenses. Last night was the 12th Russian airstrike so far this month. The operation in the capital lasted around three hours. The sirens and air raid warning systems were activated shortly before midnight and the threat was not terminated until three in the morning. The Ukrainian army used missiles, planes and mobile brigades to shoot down Russian-sent flying devices, the famous Shaheds, low-cost Iranian-made aircraft.
Last night, in his daily televised address, President Zelensky challenged the authorities and the people of Iran. “Why do you want to be complicit in Russian terror? Why are you on the side of the bad state? The world sees what is happening, and all of you in Iran see it (…). Your shaheds who terrorize Ukraine every day nights only mean that the people of Iran are being pushed further and further into the dark side of history” and “will only lead to further isolation from the world and greater problems,” argued Zelensky, back in Ukraine after a tour diplomacy that took him to Hiroshima (Japan) last week where he was embraced by Western leaders and was able to defend Ukraine’s views face to face with representatives of the so-called Global South.
Although the plans for the Ukrainian counteroffensive remain unknown, Mykhailo Podolyak, presidential adviser, has defended this morning on his Twitter account that the attacks in recent days against key points in the Russian logistics chain and infrastructures in occupied areas are part of this operation. “The intensive destruction of the enemy’s logistics is also a counteroffensive” and will bear fruit in the future, Podolyak assured. Speaking to Reuters, Zelenski’s adviser this morning denied any relationship with this incident, which he described as “strange and useless”, and has denied the information published by The New York Times, based on sources from the US intelligence services. , which claims that the attack was probably orchestrated by Ukrainian special units.
