Twelve Shahed-type drones used by Russian forces were shot down overnight on Sept. 22 by Ukrainian air defenses, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhii Lysak reported on his official Telegram channel.
Debris from the downed drones caused no injuries, but damaged two gas stations and a traffic light and started fires on the ground in the Novooleksandrivka community in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Elsewhere, Lysak reported that there were drone attacks and shelling in the Marganets and Chervonohryhorivka communities, near Nikopol, which set fires to private homes and inflicted damage to other buildings and critical infrastructure. There were no injuries or deaths announced.
The Shahed series consists of cheap, single-use, triangle-shaped loitering munitions powered by a single propeller. They carry a moderately powerful warhead that can demolish a small building with a direct hit. They are easier to destroy but more cost-effective than ballistic or cruise missiles.
Russia bought Shaheds en masse from Iran, rebranding them as the Geran series. Over the past year, Russia launched Shahed production on its own territory and regularly uses them to strike at civilian targets in Ukraine.