One person was killed after Russian forces sent dozens of attack drones over Ukraine in their latest overnight air strike, Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday (27 December).
The Ukraine air force said that 32 of 46 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia had been shot down. Most of the rest struck near the front line, mainly in the southern Kherson region.
The governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region said that a 35-year-old man was killed by debris from a downed drone in a residential area. The interior ministry said four others, including a six-year-old child, were wounded.
There were no other immediate reports of casualties. The air force said the military had shot down drones over parts of central, southern and western Ukraine.
Russia has carried out a campaign of regular air strikes on population centres far behind the front line of its nearly two-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s interior ministry also reported a separate fatality from the overnight shelling of Kherson city.
Russia launched a total of 46 attack drones in several overnight waves, Ukraine’s air force said, adding that its air defence systems shot down 32 of the drones.
Most of the drones not shot down hit the front-line territories in Ukraine’s east and west, in particular the Kherson region, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing a back-up plan worth up to €20 billion for Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The report said that the debt-funded scheme would sidestep Hungary to release money for Kyiv quickly.
