During the night’s drone attack, the enemy focused its main efforts on Ivano-Frankivsk, but our Defense Forces destroyed all 13 UAVs launched.
The spokesman of the Air Force Command of Ukraine, Ilya Yevlash, announced this on the air of the Yedyny Novyni telethon, reports Ukrinform.
“The enemy focused its main efforts on Ivano-Frankivsk that night,” Yevlash said.
According to him, all 13 released drones were destroyed by our defenders.
“The aircraft flew on standard routes, including performing a reconnaissance function. They tried to combine, go around different parts of the terrain. Usually, these are hard-to-reach areas along rivers, streams, where it is difficult for fire mobile groups to reach. In particular, they tried to bypass Ivano-Frankivsk and attack the city from different sides – north, south. They also walked in a line so that it was more difficult to hit them. During the alarm, they used either groups or individual drones, that is, they tried to confuse their trail as much as possible. However, despite such tactics, our Defense Forces managed to eliminate all UAVs,” said the spokesman of the Air Force.
He talked about the tactics used by the enemy to make it difficult to hit targets. “On the border of Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions, the drone hovered over the water for several hours. That is, in an area that is difficult for our Defense Forces to reach, but in the end our defenders still destroyed it,” Yevlash said.
Read also: The enemy attacked Dnipropetrovsk region with drones at night – houses and cars were damaged by the hits
According to him, the biggest problem now is the air defense shortage. “We need missiles for our portable anti-aircraft missile systems, which are quite effective even against cruise missiles. However, this requires additional resources and equipment, including for mobile fire groups, which could effectively determine the location of drones in the dark and strike them,” the spokesman noted.
As Ukrinform reported, on the night of April 18, the enemy attacked Ukraine with 13 Shahed-131/136 type UAVs from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk (RF) and Cape Chauda (temporarily occupied Crimea) regions. Air defense forces destroyed all 13 Russian attack drones of the Shahed-131/136 type.