Ukrainian air defence forces shoot down 50 Russian drones and one missile

Air defence forces shot down 50 enemy UAVs and one Russian missile on the night of 21 August and this morning.

According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykola Oleshchuk in a message on Telegram.

According to him, on the night of 21 August 2024, the Russian occupiers attacked Ukraine with two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles from the Voronezh region, an Kh-59/Kh-69 guided missile from the airspace of the Kursk region, and 69 Shahed-type attack UAVs (launch areas: Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Yeysk, Kursk).

A total of 72 air targets were detected and tracked by the Air Force's radio-technical units.

The enemy's air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare units of the Air Force and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defence Forces.

As a result of the air combat, 51 air targets were shot down: one Kh-59/Kh-69 guided missile and 50 Shahed-131/136 attack UAVs in Khmelnytsky, Poltava, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

Read also: Air defense forces destroy all Russian drones heading for Kyiv on Aug 21 – military administration

Another 16 enemy UAVs were lost in the area - presumably, they fell under the influence of electronic countermeasures. The information is being clarified.

In addition, an enemy attack drone was spotted crossing the state border with the Republic of Belarus in Chernihiv region, and another Russian UAV returned to its ‘homeland’ in Belgorod region, Oleshchuk added.

As of 11:15 a.m., one hostile UAV was in the airspace in Cherkasy region. Combat operations are ongoing.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, an enemy Shahed was shot down by air defence forces over Kirovohrad region during an air alert.