A Russian drone strike hits critical infrastructure in Ivano-Frankivsk region, a condo in Dnipro. Ukraine destroys more than 200 Shahed drones in an attack on warehouses in Russia’s Oryol region. Hungary blocks an EU statement denouncing a sham presidential election in Belarus.
Russian drone strike hits critical infrastructure in Ivano-Frankivsk region, condo in Dnipro
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Monday that it shot down 57 out of 104 drones launched by Russia overnight. Thirty-nine drones disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems. Infrastructure facilities, apartment blocks and private homes in the regions of Dnipro, Sumy, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kyiv were damaged in the attack, it added.
The intercepts took place over the regions of Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsya and Zhytomyr, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
Blasts were heard in western Ivano-Frankivsk region overnight on Monday as Russian drones targeted critical infrastructure sites, causing fires, head of the regional military administration Svitlana Onyshchuk said. No casualties were reported.
At one of the sites, the fire spread, covering two separate areas of 100 and 500 square meters, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. The fires were extinguished before noon.
In the region of Dnipro, the drone attack hit critical infrastructure sites, apartment buildings, private homes, and an industrial site, head of the regional military administration, Serhiy Lysak said. The Air Command East (Skhid) shot down 13 drones over the region on the evening of Sunday and overnight on Monday, he added.
Ukraine destroys more than 200 Shahed drones in attack on warehouses in Russia’s Oryol region
The Ukrainian military destroyed more than 200 Shahed drones in an attack on warehouses in Russia’s Oryol region, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Sunday. The operation was carried out by Ukraine’s Air Force in cooperation with other branches of the military.
“The results and scale of the damage are being clarified, but according to preliminary reports, more than 200 Shahed drones will not be used against our country,” the General Staff said in a statement.
“Concrete structures were hit, where thermobaric warheads, which are used to equip drones, were stored. There is information about a strong secondary detonation,” the message reads.
“Combat work targeting important sites that have a role in the destruction of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and terror against civilians, will go on. [The work] is to be continued… Glory to Ukraine!” the General Staff said.
Ukraine on Sunday claimed a further successful repeated drone strike on the Ryazan oil refinery that supplies fuel for the Russian army. The refinery is one of the four largest in Russia, the General Staff said. The facility produces diesel fuel and TS-1 jet fuel.
Ukrainian troops also struck a Russian forward command post near Korenevo in Russia’s Kursk region, it added.
Hungary blocks EU statement denouncing sham presidential election in Belarus
Hungary has blocked a joint EU statement denouncing a sham presidential election in Belarus, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said on Sunday, citing Brussels sources.
Longtime Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko won a sham vote on Sunday with almost 87 per cent of vote, marking his seventh term as leader of the country.
A draft EU statement said the election was held amid unprecedented human rights repressions and pressure on the media, and cannot be considered free, fair, or legitimate, European Pravda said.
RFE/RL’s Belarus Service earlier reported that Hungary and Slovakia had blocked the statement, with the latter later backtracking and supporting the document. Hungary was the only one of the 27 EU member states to refuse it.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos issued a joint statement on Sunday, labeling the so-called election in Belarus as illegitimate.
“Today’s sham election in Belarus has been neither free, nor fair,” Kallas and Kos said. “The relentless and unprecedented repression of human rights, restrictions to political participation and access to independent media in Belarus, have deprived the electoral process of any legitimacy,” the statement reads.
