Ukrainian Southern regions were attacked by the Russian army on Sunday, December 24. The drone attack on Christmas Eve lasted for 6.5 hours and resulted in fires in two regions.
According to the Southern Defense Forces on Telegram, initially, the Russian's tactical aviation launched Kh-59 missiles towards Kropyvnytsky and Kh-31P towards Chornomorsk in the Odessa region. Both missiles were destroyed by air defense units.
Following that, a 6.5-hour drone attack took place.
The air defense forces destroyed 22 Shahed-136 attack UAVs:
17 in the Odessa region
3 in the Kherson region
1 in the Mykolaiv region
1 in the Kirovohrad region.
"Enemy drones launched from the temporarily occupied Crimea approached for an attack from different directions, trying to exhaust our air defense and hit as many targets as possible. The enemy's priority remains the port infrastructure and other critical regional objects for survival," the statement said.
Debris from downed UAVs caused damage to technical facilities in the port infrastructure of Odessa. In the Rozdilnyansky district, debris damaged an inactive administrative building and a warehouse of a preserved facility, and the fire was promptly extinguished. There were no casualties.
However, in the Beryslav district of the Kherson region, it was not possible to avoid hits. A fire broke out in warehouse premises, which firefighters have already extinguished, according to the Southern Defense Forces.