Ukrainian drones strike Russian air defenses, tankers and Shahed launch site
A Ukrainian service member (photo: Getty Images)
Ukrainian drones struck a Russian boat base, tankers in the Black and Azov seas, five elements of Russia's air defense system, and other targets, according to Robert Brovdi (call sign Madyar), commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces.
Ukrainian forces carried out precision strikes against key Russian military targets across several areas:
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In Russian-occupied Crimea: a base for uncrewed surface vessels in the settlement of Snizhne and radar-transparent shelters for radar stations in the settlement of Okhotnyche were struck;
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In the Donetsk region: a storage and launch site for Shahed drones at Donetsk Airport was destroyed, along with a Buk-M3 surface-to-air missile system that was being transported on a trailer near Snizhne;
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In the Zaporizhzhia region: a Russian P-18 radar station in the settlement of Ivanivka was attacked;
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Inside Russia: the Nebo-SVU radar station in the settlement of Russky Kolodets and the Sopka-2 route surveillance radar system in Fedorivka, Rostov region, were struck.
The strikes were carried out by fighters from the 9th Kairos Battalion (the 414th Separate Unmanned Systems Brigade "Madyar's Birds"), the 412th Separate Nemesis Unmanned Systems Brigade, in cooperation with the Phoenix unit of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
The commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces said that during July alone, Ukrainian drones successfully struck 30 elements of Russia's air defense system.
In addition, the large-scale MoLoChkA operation is ongoing. Since it began, Ukraine's Defense Forces have struck 205 Russian tankers — 130 in the Sea of Azov and 75 in the Black Sea.
Earlier, the Financial Times reported that Ukraine's long-range strike campaign had become one of the factors behind Russia's deepest fuel crisis in decades.
The newspaper said Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries had disabled more than 30% of actual oil refining capacity and more than 45% of nominal refining capacity.
