Air Force: Ukraine downs 12 out of 16 missiles, drones launched by Russia overnight

Ukrainian forces shot down 12 out of 16 missiles and drones that Russia launched primarily in the direction of southern Odesa Oblast overnight on Sept. 17, the Air Force reported.

According to the report, Ukraine downed all six Shahed 131/136 drones, as well as six out of 10 Russian Kh-101, Kh-555, and Kh-55 cruise missiles.

Those missiles that were not shot down hit the territory of a civilian agricultural enterprise in Odesa Oblast, the Air Force said.

Odesa Oblast Governor Oleh Kiper said a grain depot and other agricultural infrastructure in Berezivka district had been hit.  There were no casualties, according to the official.

Kiper also said that local air defense destroyed two drones and five missiles.

Air raid alerts were activated in the city of Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions at around 4:30 a.m. local time on Sept. 17.

The Air Force said the drones were launched from the direction of the Russian Primorsko-Akhtarsk port town in Krasnodar Krai and occupied Crimea.

Russian Tupolev Tu-95 bombers fired the missiles from the direction of Engels, a city in Russian Saratov Oblast, the Air Force added.

Earlier on Sept. 15, Ukraine downed all 17 Shahed drones that Russia launched targeting the country's central-western Khmelnytskyi Oblast.

Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said Russia tried to hit Ukrainian bombers in response to an attack against a Russian shipyard in Sevastopol earlier this week.

On Sept. 13, Sevastopol's Sevmorzavod Shipyard in occupied Crimea suffered a strike that reportedly destroyed a Russian landing craft and seriously damaged a submarine.

UK Defense Ministry: Russian landing craft Minsk ‘almost certainly’ destroyed

The Russian landing vessel Minsk has almost certainly been “functionally destroyed” in the recent strike against the Sevmorzavod shipyard in occupied Crimea, the U.K. Defense Ministry said in its intelligence report on Sept. 15.

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek