In the early hours of 18 September, Russia launched another combined air attack against Ukraine, involving 24 one-way attack drones and 17 cruise missiles. Ukrainian air defenders shot down all missiles and 18 UAVs, according to the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“On the night of 18 September 2023, the enemy attacked Ukraine with Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs and X-101/X-555/X-55 air-launched cruise missiles. The Shaheds were flying from two directions: ([Russian Federation]’s Primorsko-Akhtarsk and [temporarily occupied] Crimea’s Cape Chauda). A total of 24 strike UAVs were spotted in the direction of Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts. 18 attack drones were destroyed by air defenses along the route.,” the Command wrote.
The Air Force says eight Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers also launched 17 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 cruise missiles from Russia’s Volgograd Oblast. All of the missiles were reportedly downed in the skies of Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, and Khmelmytskyi oblasts.
The Shahed drones reportedly once again targeted Odesa Oblast in southern Ukraine.
“Izmail district was again under enemy attack. Our air defense forces destroyed 11 attack drones in Odesa Oblast. Fortunately, there were no civilian casualties,” Oblast Head Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram.
The Ukraine South Defense Forces also noted that five other Shahed were destroyed in the skies of Mykolaiv Oblast, and two more in Kirovohrad Oblast.
Kiper says a hit was recorded on the recreational infrastructure of Vilkovo, which caused a fire that was quickly extinguished.
According to the Ukraine South Defense Forces, the wreckage of a downed UAV set a two-storey building in Mykolaiv’s Oblast’s Snihurivka hromada ablaze, but no one was hurt.
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