▲ Attack by Russian forces reduced a residential building in Zaporizhia to rubble.Photo AFP/Zaporijia Regional Military Administration
Ap and Sputnik
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, September 30, 2024, p. 30
kyiv. More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down yesterday in Russia, authorities reported, causing a forest fire and setting fire to an apartment block, in one of the largest attacks with this type of device since the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine in February. of 2022.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported the downing of 125 drones overnight in seven regions. Southwest Volgograd came under heavy fire with 67 drones shot down by Russian air defenses, according to reports.
Another 17 drones were spotted in Russia’s Voronezh region, where falling debris damaged apartments and a private home, local governor Aleksandr Gusev reported. Images on social media showed flames coming out of the windows on the upper floor of a multi-story building. There were no reports of victims.
Another 18 drones were identified in the Rostov area and the fallen debris caused a forest fire, said Governor Vasily Golubev.
The fire did not threaten populated areas, he clarified, although emergency services were working to put out the flames that had charred 20 hectares of forest.
On the other hand, 16 civilians were injured in a nighttime barrage of drones over the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, after military commanders warned that Moscow could be preparing a new military offensive in the south of the country.
The city was hit by Russian gliding bombs in 10 separate attacks that damaged a building and several homes, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov on his Telegram channel. There could be more people trapped under the rubble, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky stated that the attack on Zaporizhzhia affected the city’s transportation, and hit residential buildings.
The Ukrainian leader attended a memorial service for the 83rd anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre, one of the most infamous of World War II.
Babyn Yar, a ravine in kyiv, is where almost 34,000 Jews were murdered in 48 hours in 1941, when the city was under Nazi occupation.
The Ukrainian air force also reported that 22 Russian drones were launched into the country overnight. Fifteen were shot down in the Ukrainian regions of Sumy, Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv and Odessa, and five more were destroyed by electronic defenses. It was not clear what had happened to the other two.
Ukrainian forces destroyed the transformer at the Ráduga substation, which is part of the infrastructure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Energodar, reported the head of the city administration, Eduard Senovoz.
The plant has six pressurized water reactors of the VVER-1000 model and has a total capacity of 6 thousand megawatts.
In October 2022, after the incorporation of the province of Zaporizhia to Russia, the plant became property of this country.