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Air Force: Ukraine downs 24 drones launched by Russia overnight

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Air Force: Ukraine downs 24 drones launched by Russia overnight
Drone debris on the ground in Ukraine. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces/Telegram)

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 24 of the 25 attack drones launched by Russia overnight on June 2, the Air Force said in its morning update.

The drones were reportedly launched from Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea, as well as Yeysk in Krasnodar Krai, and Russian port town of Primorsko-Akhtarsk, located on the coast of the Azov Sea. The town lies approximately 153 kilometers (95 miles) from Kerch, which is located on the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Aircraft, missile and electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Air Force intercepted the drones over Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Odesa, Khreson, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Dnipropetrovsk, and Vinnytsia oblasts, according to to Ukraine's Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk.

No casualties were reported at the time of the publication.

Russia also targeted Kharkiv Oblast with an Iskander-K missile launched from Crimea and fired an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile from the occupied Donetsk Oblast. It is unclear whether those aerial targets were shot down.

Drone attacks are a daily occurrence in Ukraine, affecting various regions across the country. In recent months, Russia has intensified attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, launching massive drone and missile strikes targeting critical facilities.

Overnight on June 1, Moscow's troops reportedly attacked Ukraine with 35 Kh-101/555 cruise missiles launched from Tu-95 bomber planes over the Caspian Sea, as well as four Iskander-M ballistic missiles and one Iskander-K cruise missile from occupied Crimea.

Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko confirmed that energy infrastructure in several regions, including Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts came under fire by Russian forces.

‘We took out so many of them:’ Ukraine stabilizes Kharkiv front after brutal Russian offensive
Editor’s note: In accordance with the security protocols of the Ukrainian military, soldiers featured in this story are identified by first names and callsigns only. KHARKIV OBLAST – In battles fought under a sky swarming with enemy drones, even the most minimal movement, even the quickest dash fro…
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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