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Most of the drones were intercepted, according to the air force,
but apartment buildings and critical infrastructure such as the
national power grid were damaged. No casualties were immediately
reported in the 17 targeted regions.
Russia has been hammering civilian areas of Ukraine with
increasingly heavy drone, missile and glide bomb attacks since
the middle of the year.
At the same time, Russia’s army has largely held the battlefield
initiative for the past year and has been pushing hard in the
eastern Donetsk region where it is making significant tactical
advances, according to Western military analysts.
Ukraine faces a difficult winter, with worries about the
reliability of the electricity supply amid Russia’s attacks and
how much U.S. support it can count on next year after
President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
The air raid alert in the Kyiv region overnight lasted more than
seven hours. Russia is trying to unnerve civilians and wear down
their appetite for the almost 3-year-old war.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday its forces destroyed
39 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions near the
border with Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s General Staff said Tuesday that over the
past 24 hours roughly half of the clashes along the about
1,000-kilometer (600 mile) front line occurred near Pokrovsk and
Kurakhove in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine has a critical manpower problem on the front line, and
though the Russian army’s gains have been incremental its
momentum is adding up as the Ukrainians yield ground.
The Russian advance is threatening important supply routes in
Donetsk, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War
said late Monday.
Ukrainian defenses in Donetsk are not in danger of being
overrun, however, the think tank said. It also noted that Russia
would need to capture more than 8,000 square kilometers (3,000
square miles) of territory to achieve the Kremlin’s goal of
seizing the whole of Donetsk.
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