Russian forces surprised Ukraine last morning with the launch of a total of 38 drones kamikaze Shahedin which it is the largest attack with these unmanned devices that Russia acquires from Iran since last September 30.
Of the almost forty drones fired by Russia last night, Ukrainian air defenses were only able to shoot down 24which represents a much lower percentage of interceptions than usual. In the aforementioned attack on September 30, Russia launched a total of 40 shaheds, of which 30 were shot down by Ukraine.
In other drone attacks launched by the Russians in October, the interception ratio exceeded 80 and even 90%, sometimes approaching one hundred percent. As the Ukrainian military analyst wrote on his popular Telegram channel Alexander Kovalenkothe low percentage of drones shot down in last night’s attack is due, in part, to the fact that they were launched with a different trajectory than that chosen on other occasions.
Another factor, the expert explained, is that a good part of last night’s drones were directed against areas less protected against air attacks. In a message published after the drone attack last morning, the president Volodímir Zelenski He has insisted on the need for Ukraine to strengthen its air defenses, especially in the face of winter. According to Zelensky, Russian forces “will try to do more damage” as winter approaches.
Ukraine fears a repeat of the intense bombing campaign against power and thermal plants that in the fall of 2022 and during last winter left millions of Ukrainians without light and heating for weeks. The interceptions of the 24 drones shot down last night, the Ukrainian president said, occurred over the regions of Kharkiv (northeast), Zaporizhzhia (southeast), Kherson, Mikolayiv and Odessa (south), Kiev (north), Kirovohrad (center) and Vinitsia , Khmelnytskyy and Lviv (west).