Overnight on 18 March 2024, Russian troops attacked Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast with five S-300/S-400 surface-to-air guided missiles, Sumy Oblast with two Kh-59 guided missiles, and launched 22 Shahed-type explosive UAVs, with Ukrainian forces destroying 17 of the kamikaze drones, according to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The air defenders shot down 17 Shaheds in mostly central and western regions, namely in Kyiv, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Rivne Oblasts, the Air Force reported.
The AF says Russians launched the Shaheds from Russia’s Primorsko-Akhtarsk, southeast of Ukraine, which prompted the Ukrainian forces to engage its anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force and the Army, mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and electronic warfare equipment in repelling the air attack.
Local authorities and services reported Russia’s air and artillery attacks over the past day which resulted in civilian casualties.
Dnipro’s Kryvyi Rih
A fire broke out in a five-story building in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, after the debris of two drones crash, said Serhii Lysak, head of the regional military administration. The roof of the building was damaged, and a sewer pipe melted from the first to the fifth floors after a fire broke out in the basement. Utility workers were reportedly restoring the roof.
Larysa, a resident of the building, told Suspilne that it was scary, because debris of the downed drones could explode at any time. During the drone crashesl, the woman was in the apartment with her grandson, who is four and a half years old.
Kherson fire
At night, the Russian army shelled one of Kherson’s neighborhoods, which resulted in a fire in the apartments of a five-story building, according to the DSNS State Emergency Service.
Kherson Oblast Head Oleksandr Prokudin reported that Russian attacks over the past day injured one civilian in the region.
Two injured in Kharkiv Oblast, two more in Donetsk’s
This morning, the Russian military attacked the village of Novoozynove in Kharkiv Oblast, injuring a 62-year-old man, said regional chief Oleh Syniehubov.
In earlier hours, the Russian army launched missile attacks on a fire station in Kharkiv Oblast, injuring a firefighter and damaging the station’s building and four fire and rescue vehicles, the State Emergency Service reported.
Donetsk Oblast authorities updated their stats of civilian casualties from the Russian invasion in the region, saying that Russian attacks injured two more locals in Donetsk’s Myrnohrad.
Russia kills a civilian in Sumy Oblast, injures another
In the past day, Russian forces launched 463 strikes in Sumy Oblast, resulting in one death and one injury, as reported by regional police on 18 March, Suspilne says.
