Ukrainian forces intercept all 37 Russian drones in overnight attack
9:42 AM EDT, May 19, 2024
On Sunday morning, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, General Mykola Oleshchuk, reported that air defense managed to shoot down all 37 Shahed-131/136 attack drones that the Russian armed forces used to attack Ukraine the previous night.
"On the night of May 18 to 19, 2024, Russian occupiers conducted an aggressive attack on Ukrainian territory. They used 37 attack drones Shahed-131/136, which were sent from the Primorsko-Akhtarsky and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation," reads the official statement issued by the command of the Ukrainian Air Force.
General Oleshchuk emphasized that this attack was not successful for the Russian forces. Thanks to the coordinated action of the Air Force's anti-aircraft missile units and the mobile shooting groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, the attack was repelled. Specialized electronic warfare equipment was also used in the defensive action, significantly contributing to the effectiveness of the operations.
"As a result of our defensive actions, all 37 Shahed drones were shot down. This happened in the Kyiv, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, and Kherson regions," General Oleshchuk summarized the situation.
The commander of the Ukrainian Air Force expressed his appreciation for the effectiveness and determination of the Ukrainian defense units, which did not allow the Russian armed forces to realize their plans.
another Su-25 shot down
The Ukrainian army reported on Saturday the shooting down of a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft in the Donetsk region. The anti-aircraft defense of the 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade, named after General Marko Bezruchko, downed the aircraft.
"Another enemy Su-25 down! Now its remains lie at one of the airfields in Donetsk," the brigade wrote on Facebook.
"The air defense soldiers of the 110th Brigade continue to impose harsh penalties on Moscow pilots for illegally crossing the border," it added.
This is the fourth Russian Su-25 aircraft shot down by the brigade's fighters in the past two weeks. The previous one fell to the ground on May 13.
