Overnight on 1 January, the Russian army attacked Ukraine with 90 explosive drones, four S-300 ballistic missiles, three anti-aircraft missiles, and one air-launched guided missile, while Ukraine’s air defenders shot down a record 87 UAVs, Ukraine’s Air Force says. The Russian attack killed a teenager in Odesa and injured eight other civilians, local authorities reported.
The attack started on the evening of New Year’s Eve as Russia launched a “record number” of the Iranian-made Shahed one-way attack drones in waves from four locations, namely occupied Crimea’s Cape Chauda and Balaclava, and Russia’s Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk, according to the Air Force’s report. Air raid alerts were triggered in most regions of Ukraine along the routes of the Shaheds.
“A total of 90 enemy Shahed-136/131 drones were launched. The enemy also fired four S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles at Kharkiv Oblast, three Kh-31P anti-radiation missiles, and one Kh-59 [air launched guided missile] from the [temporarily occupied parts of] Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts,” the report reads.
The Air Force says Ukrainian air defense units, including mobile fire groups, managed to destroy a record number of Russia’s Shahed-136/131 suicide drones, 87 of 90.
A 15-year-old teenager was killed in a Russian attack in Odesa, the head of Odesa Oblast Military Administration, Oleh Kiper, said. Four people were hospitalized with injuries and burns, and four others received medical treatment on the spot.
The Ukraine South Defense Forces noted that 28 Shahed-131/136 drones were shot down in the skies of Odesa Oblast, while one of the port terminals was hit. The downed UAVs damaged at least three high-rise apartment buildings, three detached houses, and outbuildings.
The Russian attack also destroyed the museum of Roman Shukhevych, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army’s general-corporal, in Bilohirsk, Lviv Oblast. The fire was caused by the drone debris crash on 1 January 2024, according to Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi.
The Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military administration said the air defenses shot down five Shaheds in the region, but others caused damage. In Dnipro City, a UAV set fire to a local enterprise, which was swiftly extinguished by firefighters. In Kamianske’s Pyatikhatky community, 1,500 families lost power as an enemy drone tangled with a power line. Experts promptly restored electricity, according to the authorities.
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