Overnight into 18 December, Russia launched another suicide drone attack against Ukraine. Ukraine’s Air Forces said the Russians launched only five Shahed-type drones. This attack was much smaller compared to previous days, which witnessed attacks involving up to several dozen Shaheds often accompanied by missile strikes.

Lately, the Russian forces carry out such explosive drone attacks every night, targeting various regions across Ukraine, despite the fact that the Ukrainian air defenders shoot down most of the UAVs every time. The only tangible effect of such assaults is long-lasting air raid alerts in affected oblasts, sometimes spanning hours.

“On 18 December night, the Russian occupiers attacked with five Shahed attack UAVs from the area of Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Russia. All the drones were shot down by mobile fire groups of the Air Force and the Defense Forces of Ukraine within Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts,” the Air Force’s report reads.

The mobile fire groups are small units equipped with machine guns or anti-aircraft guns, and searchlights. They are swiftly deployed along the routes of the UAVs during explosive drone attacks to destroy the low-flying slow Shaheds.

Mykolaiv Oblast Head Vitalii Kim says one Shahed drone was destroyed in his region during the attack. Another UAV was downed in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, according to the regional authorities.

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