Ukrainian Air Force on Russian attack overnight: Shahed UAVs target frontline areas, no ballistic missile launches

Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, has reported that Russian forces are now deploying most of their UAVs in the frontline area.

Source: Ukrinform news agency, citing Ihnat during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Details: The official noted that the Russians fired six S-300 missiles on Kharkiv on the night of 30-31 December, although they did not employ Iskander ballistic missiles. Additionally, the Russian forces also launched 49 attack UAVs from three areas.

Quote: "The majority of these attack drones targeted the frontline area. I mean, the defence line, where our soldiers are deployed, and also the frontline areas of such oblasts as Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. This is not the first time the enemy has used Shaheds like this. This is a change in attack strategy. Previously, UAVs were used to target the interior of the country because the Shahed is a long-range precision weapon that can fly quite far, even to the western borders of our country.

The fighter jets chasing them... can fly around them five times and still not destroy one. This is a challenging target for our old Soviet-era fighters. That's why we expect the F-16s to be of great help to us in this regard when they arrive in Ukraine."

Details: The military official emphasised that the 21 Shaheds downed that night was "a pretty good result".

Ihnat also noted that shooting down drones in the dark is more challenging.

"The peculiarity of this attack is that the enemy is gradually deploying these UAVs to the front line. This proves what we talked about six months ago... There will likely be fewer missiles (to strike Ukrainian infrastructure – ed.) as they [the Russians] are unable to produce many, and more kamikaze drones, as they are setting up production on their own territory. They do not mind even sending them to the front line," said Ihnat.

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