WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says Russia launched 67 drones in overnight attack

Ukraine's air force said on Saturday Russia launched a total of 67 long-range Shahed drones in a mass overnight attack, 58 of which it was able to shoot down.

The air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that air defence units were scrambled into action in 11 regions across Ukraine.

Drone debris was found next to the parliament building in the capital Kyiv, the legislature said in a separate statement it posted on its official Telegram page along with several photographs.

It is rare for a Russian missile or drone to get so far into central Kyiv, as the city is protected by a network of Soviet-era and Western-donated air defence systems.

The hilltop government quarter in the city centre is perhaps the best-defended site in Ukraine, as it also houses the offices of the president, cabinet and the central bank.

The pictures on Telegram showed at least four pieces of debris scattered on the ground near the parliament building. One piece lay at the foot of the steps to the building's main entrance, while another hunk of metal looked riddled with shrapnel.

Reuters correspondents in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, heard a series of explosions shortly after 3 a.m. (0000 GMT) on Saturday, some of which resounded loudly around the city centre, waking up its residents.

Since the start of its invasion in February 2022, Moscow has launched thousands of missiles and Shahed drones into Ukraine.

The Iranian-designed drone has been used by Russia since September 2022 as a cheap, more expendable alternative to missiles, which are expensive and harder to manufacture.

The propeller-powered Shahed flies at less than 200 km per hour (125 miles per hour) but can be tricky for conventional air defence systems to track because it flies low and emits far less heat than a missile.

Kyiv's air force said the drones were launched from two border regions in Russia as well as from the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian drone destroys US-made howitzer in Ukraine – MOD

The Russian Defense Ministry has released a new video showing the destruction of a US-made M777 howitzer in Ukraine. The artillery piece was taken down by a Lancet loitering munition, the military said on Saturday.

The howitzer was discovered during redeployment in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region. Infrared drone footage released by the ministry shows the artillery piece getting towed by a truck, with an apparent escort vehicle seen traveling ahead of the consignment.

The M777 ended up hit by the Lancet as it reached a wooded area outside of a village. Drone footage shows a large blaze and secondary detonations at the site, suggesting the artillery piece and its ammo stock were destroyed.

US-made 155mm NATO-caliber M777 howitzers have become one of the main medium-to-long range artillery tools in the Ukrainian arsenal, with at least 200 pieces delivered to Kiev by its Western backers. A vast majority of the howitzers have been provided by Washington, with a small number supplied by its allies, including Canada and Australia.

More than 100 units of the type have been destroyed by Russian forces during the hostilities, with the systems repeatedly ending up hit by Lancet-family drones at their firing positions, as well as falling victim to other means of counter-battery warfare, including aerial, missile and artillery strikes.

Reuters/RT