Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russia is deploying "new tactics" in its aerial assaults on the country. On Friday, Ukraine came under extensive daytime attacks involving missiles and drones fitted with jet engines, resulting in the deaths of at least 14 people across multiple regions, including Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Zhytomyr, and Dnipropetrovsk.
The city of Kharkiv, located just 40 kilometers from the Russian border, faced successive waves of rocket and drone strikes overnight and into Friday morning. Local officials reported four rocket attacks and at least 20 drone strikes, damaging residential and commercial buildings. The Russian military purportedly used Iranian-built Shahed drones equipped with jet engines, which can cover the short distance to Kharkiv so rapidly that they are difficult for air defenses to intercept.
The Ukrainian Air Force stated that Russia launched a total of 542 drones and 37 missiles from Thursday night through Friday, targeting critical infrastructure facilities. Air defense units allegedly shot down 515 drones and 26 missiles. A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said on state television, "We see that the enemy is using new routes, increasingly modernized drones, and new tactics."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of escalating attacks just days before Easter, claiming he spoke with Pope Leo XIV during the latest aerial assaults. Zelenskyy stated, "At the very moment of our conversation, the Russians attacked Ukraine yet again. The Russians have only intensified their strikes, turning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation."
The attacks coincide with stalled peace talks brokered by the US regime in recent weeks, attributed to the war in the Middle East, which has also created uncertainty over future weapons supplies to Ukraine. Zelenskyy said he invited US negotiators to Kyiv, but the Kremlin regime claimed it had not received any such proposals.
The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, asserted that it intercepted 192 Ukrainian drones overnight, which may have been targeting oil export facilities near St. Petersburg based on their flight paths. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, argued that Russia should drop its "tolerant attitude" toward Ukraine's potential future membership in the European Union, which he claimed could rapidly transform into a full-fledged military alliance hostile to Russia.
Source: www.dw.com