In the early hours of 3 August 2024, Ukraine’s air defenders successfully repelled a large-scale Russian air attack, shooting down 24 out of 29 Shahed-type one-way attack drones over nine oblasts of Ukraine, according to a statement from the country’s Air Force command.
Russia carries out drone attacks every night, often targeting energy and military infrastructure in Ukraine. Ukrainian air defense units usually destroy most drones, but some reach its targets.
Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Air Force, reported on Facebook that the Russian forces launched an attack using two S-300 surface-to-air guided missiles from the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, two Kh-31P anti-radiation missiles from the airspace over the Black Sea, and 29 Shahed-type attack drones from various directions including Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea, and Russia’s Primorsko-Akhtarsk and Kursk.
The air defense operation involved mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, anti-aircraft missile troops, and electronic warfare units of the Air Force. As a result of the air battle, 24 Shahed-131/136 attack drones were shot down over Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Zhytomyr oblasts, as per the Air Force commander.
In the Vinnytsia oblast, Russian forces managed to hit an infrastructure object with a drone, as reported by Natalia Zabolotna, First Deputy Head of the Vinnytsia Regional Military Administration. Emergency services were working at the site, and no injuries were reported.
The Vinnytsia oblast experienced two air raid alerts during the night, lasting from 01:46 to 03:36 and from 03:47 to 05:05. The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had warned about the threat of Shahed-type attack drones.
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