Russia launched airstrikes across Ukraine overnight from Monday to Tuesday, targeting the capital Kyiv and various cities in the country, including Lviv, near the border with Poland. Air raid sirens sounded for several hours of the night throughout the Ukrainian territory.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that according to preliminary information, Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 28 of the 30 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia. About 20 enemy targets were identified and destroyed by the forces and our air defense in the airspace around Kyiv, Serhi Popko, head of the capital's military administration, said on Telegram. "Another massive airstrike on the capital," Popko said.
The military administration of Lviv, a city of about 700,000 people 70 kilometers from the border with NATO member Poland, said Russia had attacked "critical infrastructure" in the city, starting a fire. According to preliminary information, there were no victims.
Yuriy Malashko, head of the military administration of the Zaporizhia region in southeastern Ukraine, reported on Telegram that the Russian incursion into the region targeted telecommunications infrastructure and agricultural and livestock properties. No casualties were reported in Zaporizhia. The military high command said that Russia launched seven missiles in the attack on Zaporizhia, according to preliminary information.
Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses also shot down three drones in the southern Ukraine's Mykolayiv province.
Meanwhile, on the front lines, the Ukrainian forces continue with the counteroffensive that began a couple of weeks ago. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday night that Ukraine has not yet used new assault brigades and assured that Ukrainian troops are advancing in some areas of the front line.
Some of the most powerful military units are “waiting their time” to join the fight. Kyiv's army has not lost any positions as they hold their ground in areas seeing an increase in Russian attacks, he said.
Kyiv's tactic, as stated today by the representative of the self-proclaimed people's republic of Lugansk, Andrei Marochko, does not consist in advancing, but in causing the "greatest possible damage" to the Russian troops.
"In this way, the Ukrainian military command seeks to deplete our forces in certain sectors in order to break through the defensive lines there," Marochko told the official Russian TASS news agency.
He added that on the Liman front, in the north of the Donetsk region and in the west of the Lugansk region, Ukrainian units are maneuvering and trying to attack the flanks of Russian troops.
"In small groups, the enemy tries to advance on the flanks and encircle part of our troops, distracting our units from the main axes of their attacks," Marochko explained.
The Luhansk representative indicated that these actions by the Ukrainian forces take place near the towns of Nevske, Makiivka and Terny, the latter in the Donetsk region.
