Ukraine’s air defenses were put to the test overnight on 6 October 2024 as Russian forces launched a massive air assault, employing over 90 aerial weapons against multiple regions across the country. The attack, which started at 19:00 on 5 October, involved the use of various types of drones and missiles, and as of 07:00 on 6 October four explosive drone were still in the air, as per the Ukrainian Air Force.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, their radio-technical troops detected and tracked more than 90 Russian air attack means, including two Iskander-M ballistic missiles, one Iskander-K cruise missile, one Kh-59/69 guided air-launched missile, and 87 Shahed-type UAVs. The Air Force reported that the drones were launched from Orel, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and Kursk in Russia.
Ukrainian defense forces, including aviation, air defense missile troops, electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups of the Air Force and Defense Forces, successfully intercepted 56 Shahed drones and two missiles. The interceptions occurred across 14 oblasts: Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv, the Air Force says.
The Air Force also reported that 25 drones were “locationally lost” in various regions of Ukraine i.e. disappeared from radars and crashed, likely “due to active electronic warfare countermeasures.” As of 07:00, four UAVs remained in Ukrainian airspace, with one still detected in Kyiv Oblast at 10:00, according to airspace monitoring channels.
In Kyiv, the City Military Administration reported that Russian drones approached the capital in waves from various directions. Air raid alerts were issued three times, lasting for over five hours in total. The administration stated that all detected Russian UAVs in Kyiv’s airspace were neutralized, with no reported destruction or casualties in the city.
However, Odesa was less fortunate. The State Emergency Service of Odesa Oblast reported that Russian forces attacked the city with drones, damaging civilian infrastructure, including warehouses and trucks. The attacks resulted in fires, which were subsequently extinguished. One man was seriously injured and hospitalized.
The assault on Ukraine’s southern port city required a significant emergency response, with 12 units of equipment and 47 rescuers from the State Emergency Service deployed, along with one unit of equipment and three personnel from the Association of Volunteer Firefighters of Ukraine.
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