Russia claims it shot down 87 Ukrainian drones in one night, struck military and energy facilities

Europe, News June 15, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

Russian Defense Ministry reported that its forces intercepted 87 Ukrainian drones overnight, and destroyed all of them. More than 70 of these drones were targeting Russia’s southern Rostov region, where Russia’s military command center for operations against Kyiv is located.

“During the night, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to commit a terrorist attack with drones was foiled,” the defense ministry said in a statement released on June 14, 2024. “In all, 87 Ukrainian drones were shot down above Russian regions,” it said, adding that 70 drones were downed over Rostov, six each over Kursk and Voronezh, and two each over Volgograd and the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

Governor Vasily Golubev of Rostov confirmed through social media that there were no injuries but noted power outages in several areas. Authorities in the Voronezh region, bordering Ukraine, reported minor damage to a fuel reservoir from falling debris.

The intensity and frequency of aerial attacks have been on the rise between the two warring states. Earlier this week, Ukraine announced that it successfully intercepted 29 out of 30 missiles and explosive drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack, utilizing recently replenished stocks of anti-aircraft missiles from the United States and its allies.

Separately, the Russian Defense Ministry also claimed that its Armed Forces delivered “19 combined strikes by air-launched and ground-based precision weapons and strike unmanned aerial vehicles,” hitting energy sites of Ukrainian military-industrial sites in response to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian energy facilities.

The Defense Ministry claimed that Russia struck Ukrainian military airfields, Storm Shadow missile depots, and deployment areas of nationalist formations and foreign mercenaries over the past week. “The strikes targeted military airfield infrastructure, depots storing Storm Shadow cruise missiles and other air-launched weapons, ammunition and explosives warehouses, workshops producing strike unmanned aerial vehicles,” it added.

*^{Joint Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. (Image Credit: Twitter/@ZelenskyyUa)}*

In response Ukraine claimed that it targeted three Russian surface-to-air missile systems in Russian-annexed Crimea, marking its second reported strike on air defenses in the peninsula this week.

This achievement marked one of Ukraine’s highest interception rates to date in the ongoing conflict, highlighting the significant impact of receiving new supplies of Western weaponry. The reinforcement has strengthened Ukraine’s war effort, which has faced substantial challenges in recent months.

Ukraine also reported retaliatory strikes in the Crimea region in response to the Russian missile attack. It targeted an S-300 system and two more advanced S-400 systems near Belbek and Sevastopol, Ukraine’s general staff said. “As a result of the strikes, two radars of the S-300 and S-400 complexes were destroyed. Information about the third radar is being clarified,” it said on Telegram.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and considers it an integral part of its territory. Kyiv has pledged to reclaim Crimea, along with other Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Moscow’s forces.

During Russia’s full-scale invasion over the past two years, Ukraine has conducted numerous air and naval attacks on Russian targets in Crimea, inflicting considerable damage on Moscow’s Black Sea fleet.

However, Ukraine is currently facing a critical shortage of air defense ammunition. Commanders at various units reported rationing missiles, which left Ukrainian forces vulnerable to Russian missile attacks. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has consistently called for more U.S.-made Patriot air-defense systems to bolster Ukraine’s defenses.