A man stands inside a shelling crater following an overnight drone attack in Odesa, southern Ukraine, on Thursday amid the Russian invasion. A total of 31 Shaheed attack drones were launched by Russia against a dozen regions overnight Friday, officials said. Photo by Igor Tkachenko/EPA-EFE
Dec. 16 (UPI) — Russia and Ukraine were targeted by dozens of drone strikes early Saturday as dueling bombardments were fired from each side.
Ukraine Air Force authorities claimed they shot down 30 out of 31 Iranian-made Shaheed drones coming from Russia that targeted various parts of the country on Friday night.
Military officials said the drones were fired from Crimea, Bryansk Oblast, and Kursk Oblast and downed over nearly a dozen oblasts in Ukraine, including Kyiv, Kherson, Poltava, Cherkasy, and Khmelnytskyi.
Ukrainian authorities warned previously that Moscow was planning to escalate its attacks during the winter months, while targeting Ukraine’s power grid and various civilian sites.
Residents were warned to take cover in bomb shelters as massive explosions and air raid sirens gripped Ukraine throughout the night.
Lt. Gen. Serhii Naiev, who serves as commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said all enemy targets were destroyed, while eight out of 14 Russian drones were intercepted within the Northern operational zone.
Meanwhile, Russian officials said Ukrainian drone strikes launched overnight Friday were the heaviest since Kyiv unleashed a similar barrage in late November when 35 drones targeted four Russian regions, including Moscow.
Russia said its air defenses shot down 40 Ukrainian drones early Saturday.
Of that number, 32 were destroyed over Crimea, six others were taken out in Russia’s Kursk region and one more in Belgorod amid continued shelling of contested regions in northern Ukraine, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russian villages were attacked in Dmitriyev and Zheleznogorsk in Kursk, according to Regional Governor Roman Starovoit, who noted that Ukrainian drone fire destroyed fences, blasted out windows and damaged the roofs of eight homes.
A Ukrainian missile strike also purportedly knocked out power to a major manufacturing facility in the region, but operations have since been restored.
Several villages were also hit near the border of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
The Ukrainian strikes came after attacks by Russian forces over the past week throughout the country, including in Kyiv and the port city of Danube.
On Thursday, Russia claimed to have fired a hypersonic missile for the first time in the conflict as President Vladimir Putin vowed to win the war.
The Kremlin would not verify reports of damage in Crimea despite claims on social media that explosions had rocked Russian military targets on the peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Kursk Region Governor Roman Starovoyt said two districts were hit, but that no one was injured or killed.