Ukraine downs 16/17 Russia’s explosive drones as fifth civilian dies after Russian missile strike on Mykolaiv
Russia deployed 17 Shahed drones against Ukraine, successfully downing 16. A civilian death increased Mykolaiv's Russian missile attack casualties to five, amidst significant challenges in air defense capabilities due to stalled US military aid.
Overnight on 12 April, Russia launched 17 Iranian-designed Shahed-type one-way-attack drones, targeting several regions of Ukraine. Ukrainian air defenders reportedly shot down 16 of those. Meanwhile, a civilian man injured in Russia’s April 11 noon missile strike on Mykolaiv, has died in hospital, raising the death toll of the attack to five.
With the US major military aid package for Ukraine stalled in the US Congress by Republicans for more than six months, Russia is taking advantage of the fact that Ukraine’s air defense missiles are being depleted and Ukraine cannot repel air attacks as efficiently as before. Thus, the Russians have escalated the use of missiles of various types since March, primarily targeting Ukraine’s energy grid and continuing deliberate strikes on residential areas of multiple cities across the country. Ukraine still can destroy most explosive drones, but when it comes to the missiles, many more of those penetrate air defenses.
Early on 12 April, Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed 16 Shahed kamikaze drones used by Russian troops to attack Ukraine, as reported by Commander of the Ukrainian Air Forces Mykola Oleshchuk, who says the Russians launched 17 strike UAVs from Cape Chauda in temporarily occupied Crimea and also conducted a strike with a Kh-59 guided missile.
“As a result of the anti-air combat by the aviation of the Air Forces and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, 16 strike UAVs of the Shahed-type were shot down within the Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, and Khmelnytsky oblasts,” Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram.
