Russian UAV shot down outside Kyiv amid air raid alert, say local authorities

“An enemy UAV-type object was detected in the airspace north of Kyiv during the latest air raid alert,” KMDA head Serhiy Popko said.

“The target was destroyed by air defense forces and means.”

He thanked the air defense forces and urged the residents of Kyiv to immediately go to shelter after the announcement of the air raid alert.

Read also: Unidentified, unmarked drone crashes in Russia’s Tula Oblast

Today, the air raid alert was triggered in Kyiv at 3.45 p.m. and lasted 17 minutes.

Earlier, the Russian military launched 16 Iranian-made suicide drones at targets across Ukraine overnight on March 18.

Read also: Ukraine repels over 100 attacks in past day as Russia continues offensive

Ukrainian air defense managed to shoot down 11 attack drones in central, western, and eastern regions, including all of the drones launched at Kyiv.

Russia recently started launching its suicide drones from Bryansk Oblast, which is only about 200 kilometers away from Kyiv to the north. The Ukrainian air force said the Russians had done this to reduce the available response time for Ukrainian air defenses to drone attacks.

Ukraine’s air defenses against the Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones have improved in the last few months — the last attack in which drones damaged civilian infrastructure was on Dec. 19.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine