Early on 17 August, Russian forces launched a combined air attack on Ukraine using 14 Shahed drones and an Iskander-K cruise missile. The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that all 14 drones were successfully intercepted by air defense systems operating in the Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kyiv oblasts.
However, the Iskander-K cruise missile, launched from Russia’s Voronezh Oblast, struck the city of Sumy. Oleksii Drozdenko, head of the Sumy City Military Administration, reported impacts in the area of Prospect Svobody Avenue, resulting in significant damage to windows and multiple burning civilian cars.
Initially, one person was reported injured and received medical assistance. Later, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs updated the casualty count to two injured individuals as of 09:26.
The State Emergency Service reported that the attack ignited 10 civilian vehicles parked near high-rise residential buildings. Rescue workers quickly responded to prevent the fire from spreading to other vehicles. The blast wave shattered windows and damaged the façades of residential buildings.
The Russian drones were launched from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Yeysk, and Kursk Oblast of Russia. Ukraine’s defense forces, including mobile fire groups, aviation, anti-aircraft missile units, and electronic warfare systems of the Air Force, were credited with intercepting all the drones, as per the Air Force’s report.
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