Ukrainian forces down 12 out of 13 Russian Shahed drones overnight
Despite Ukraine's effective interception of drones, the attack damaged power infrastructure. In many Ukrainian regions missiles, shelling, guided bombs led to casualties among civilians.
Overnight on 6 May, Ukraine’s air defense forces successfully shot down 12 out of 13 “Shahed” drones, according to Commander of the Air Force of Ukraine Mykola Oleshchuk. However, drones have damaged Ukraine’s power infrastructure which led to blackouts.
Since March 2024, Russian armed forces have intensified their attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, inflicting over $1 billion in losses to the country’s energy system. The work is underway to prepare Ukraine for the fall and winter heating season, Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko said.
The drones launched from Russia’s Kursk Oblast were intercepted in Sumy Oblast. At 00:10, Suspline journalists reported hearing an explosion in the regional center, after which parts of Sumy city were left without electricity. As a result of the Russian attacks, the settlements of Sumy, Romny, and Okhtyrka districts were left without power.
Emergency services and energy workers have partially restored power in the affected areas, including parts of Sumy, where repair is ongoing. As per the Sumy Regional Military Administration, the Emergency Situations Commission has decided to restore the work of critical infrastructure facilities with emergency power sources. “Resilience points” where people can charge their devices and have a hot cup of tea have also been established.
The Sumy City Council reported that all medical facilities in Sumy, located in areas where electricity has been restored, are operating as usual. During the stabilization period of the energy situation, educational institutions have switched to remote learning.
According to Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national energy company, as of 7:00 am, 41,656 Ukrainian energy consumers were left without power. The enterprise added that a high-voltage facility was damaged in the attack on the region. One civilian was injured, said the Operational Command North.
Additionally, within the last day, Russian forces shelled 246 times border areas of the region damaging a private house. Sumy police department initiated an investigation into violation of the laws and customs of war committed by Russian troops.
During the past day, Russian shelling killed one and injured six civilians in Donetsk Oblast, said Vadym Filashkin, the head of the regional state administration.
In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian kamikaze drones damaged a high-voltage power transmission line overnight, according to the Head of the regional state administration, Serhii Lysak.
In Kherson Oblast, Russian shelling injured one civilian and damaged five multi-story buildings and six private houses in 16 settlements over the past day, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
The number of casualties from a guided bomb attack on Kharkiv on 5 May has risen to 16, said Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of Kharkiv Oblast.
The bombs damaged 14 apartment buildings, three cars, a medical facility, a dormitory, an office building, eight private houses, garages, and a café, and destroyed three private houses.
Approximately 15 settlements in the region, including Synkivka, Petropavlivka, and Kotliarivka, suffered from artillery and mortar shelling. Aerial bombardment affected Synkivka, Vesele, Bilyi Kolodiaz, Doroshivka, and Kharkiv.
In the village of Monakhynivka in the Kupiansk district in Kharkiv Oblast, Russians destroyed an entire street with one FAB-1500 aerial bomb and killed an 88-year-old woman, said Serhii Bolvinov, the chief of the Criminal Police Department of the Kharkiv Regional Police.
Bolvinov emphasized that there were no more than a hundred residents in this border village and no military personnel. The Russians equipped the FAB-1500 with a “special module so that the bomb could glide in the air after being launched from the aircraft.”
“They used weapons of such power against us for the first time. The only thing they achieved was destroying houses and killing an 88-year-old woman. Her body was extracted from the rubble after the strike,” said the head of the Criminal Police Department.
He also stressed that despite the attack, the residents of Monakhynivka immediately began helping the police in cleaning streets and documenting Russia’s crimes.
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