Russia launched an overnight volley of 32 Shahed drones at Ukraine, with the targeted nation's air defenses reportedly shooting them all down.
Knewz.com has learned that the drone strike was thwarted over the Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Kherson, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy regions.
Mykola Oleschuk, the Commander of the Air Force of Ukraine, shared a report regarding the attempted overnight drone strike on Telegram, thanking Ukrainian military elements for the "one hundred percent result!"
The Air Force commander mentioned that the drone attack was thwarted by fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force, mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, and electronic warfare units.
"On the night of July 5, 2024, the Russian occupiers attacked Ukraine with 32 UAVs of the 'Shahed-131/136' type... During the night, the defenders of the sky shot down all 32 'Shahed' drones in Mykolayiv, Odesa, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy regions," Oleschuk wrote on Telegram.
Despite avoiding the significant destruction the latest Russian drone strike could have resulted in if successful, falling debris from the downed Shahed UAVs still caused some damage in the Makariv region of Kyiv.
Makariv City Governor Vadim Tokar shared an estimate of damages in a Telegram post, where he wrote that falling debris from the drones wrecked the doors, windows, and roofs of six private residences. A car was also destroyed in "one of the community's settlements."
"There are no dead or injured. All necessary services are currently working at the scene to describe, record, and eliminate the consequences."
In his statement, the City Governor also urged the public not to ignore air alarm messages. "Take care of yourself and your family!"
Russia has been using Iranian-made Shahed drones to carry out deep strikes in Ukraine since the beginning of the war and has also established a factory to mass-produce the attack drones.
Notably, the naval forces of Ukraine recently destroyed a Russian drone base in the southern region of Krasnodar, responsible for launching Shahed UAVs and training cadets to operate the same.
"New satellite images confirm the destruction on the night of June 21 of the Shahed-136/Geran-2 storage and preparation facilities, training buildings, control and communication points of these UAVs located in the Krasnodar Territory," Ukrainian navy officials wrote in a Facebook post.
It is also worth noting that Western officials recently claimed that Vladimir Putin might be outsourcing the manufacture of Shahed-like attack UAVs to China.
China and Russia reportedly held talks in 2023 about collaborating on the development of attack drones similar to the Iranian model, and anonymous Western officials say that Xi Jinping's nation is already in the process of developing and testing the new UAVs.
Bloomberg reported, citing Chinese military websites and several other media outlets, that the nation is developing a new kamikaze UAV named the Sunflower 200, which looks similar to the Shahed 136 drones.
On the other hand, the drones in Volodymyr Zelensky's repertoire have been wreaking havoc on Russian targets, including oil and energy infrastructure located deep within Russian territory.
An early morning drone strike on June 28 destroyed an oil depot in the city of Tambov in Central Russia, causing a small fire. It was the second Ukrainian drone strike to target the city that month.
"At 4.35 in the morning, a [Ukrainian drone attack] at the oil depot was recorded in the Michurinsky municipal district of the Tambov region. As a result, a small fire broke out," Maxim Yegorov, the regional Governor of Tambov, wrote on Telegram at the time.
"There are no victims. The nearest village is 3 km away. If necessary, residents will be evacuated. Everything is ready for this. The situation is under control."