Russian Drones Strike Western Ukraine

Overnight, Russian forces launched multiple groups of Shahed kamikaze drones towards western Ukraine, according to reports from the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This prompted an air alert in several regions across the western and southern parts of the country.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported the Shahed drones flying from Mykolaiv Oblast to Odesa Oblast, from the northern part of Kherson Oblast heading towards Mykolaiv Oblast, and another group from Zaporizhzhia Oblast en route to Kherson Oblast. Military monitoring channels also noted explosions in the Vinnytsia region during the early hours of the night.

By 3 a.m., Russian drones had reportedly reached central areas of Lviv, Ukraine's largest city in the west. Shortly after, a nearby village, Malekhov, was struck, resulting in a serious injury to a 70-year-old security guard, as reported by the local mayor.

The air alert in western Ukraine was lifted by 5:30 a.m. following Ukrainian army efforts to intercept the drones. The Air Force confirmed that 19 out of 21 drones were successfully shot down overnight in various regions including Kherson, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Khmelnytskyi, and Lviv.

Meanwhile, reports from the news telegram channel "This is Rostov" indicated that a fire at the fuel depot in the port of Azov continued into the night, almost a day after a Ukrainian drone strike targeted the location. A video posted by the channel showed a burning fuel tank. Local authorities, cited by the Russian edition of the BBC, stated that there were no casualties. The Russian Ministry of Emergencies confirmed efforts to extinguish the fire, involving over 70 firefighters, 21 units of equipment, and a fire train.

Earlier, Ukrainian special services reportedly attributed the drone strike on the Azov oil warehouse to the Security Service of Ukraine, according to information from an anonymous source relayed to the press.