Ukrainian Air Defense Downs 24 Drones Amid Russian Missile and Shahed Attacks

Russian troops launched an air attack on Ukraine using missiles and kamikaze drones early on June 2, according to Mykola Oleschuk, the commander of the Air Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU).

The AFU’s air defense forces shot down 24 enemy attack drones. Overall, Russian forces launched the following overnight strikes in Ukraine:

• Cruise missile “Iskander-K” from occupied Crimea toward the Kharkiv region.
• S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile from the occupied part of the Donetsk region.
• 25 Shaheds from Cape Chauda (occupied Crimea), Yeysk, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk districts in Russia.

According to Oleschuk, fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force, mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces, and radio-electronic warfare equipment repelled this airstrike. Russian attack drones were destroyed across eight regions.

“During the night, defenders of the sky shot down 24 Shaheds in the Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, Kyiv, Khmelnytsky, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, and Vinnytsia regions,” he reported.

During the previous night’s massive air attack, at least 100 Russian missiles and drones targeted energy sites across Ukraine, officials said on Saturday.

Two thermal power plants were damaged in the attack, according to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, reported by AFP. The locations of the damaged plants were not specified.

“It was another extremely difficult night for the Ukrainian energy sector. The enemy struck two of our thermal power plants. The equipment was seriously damaged,” DTEK said in a statement on Telegram.

It was the sixth major attack on DTEK thermal power plants since mid-March.

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If this information is confirmed, it would be the first time such a weapon had been used since Russia invaded in February 2022.

A reconstruction operator in Ukraine, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Kyiv Post that if the government does not build new thermal power plants immediately, the country could experience massive freezing of municipal heating pipes once temperatures drop in November.

The ministry warned that power restrictions were likely on Saturday evening as a result of the attacks.

President Volodymyr Zelensky continued pressing Western partners, saying Moscow was trying to “exploit” a lack of “determination” among Ukraine’s key backers, and reiterated his call for more air defense systems.