Another wave of iranian-russian loitering munitions attacked Ukrainian cities on the night of March 17th, 2024, Ukraine's Air Command "South" reports. Air defenses managed to take down 14 munitions, of which 13 were headed toward the Odesa region, centered around the seaside port city of Odesa.
Later in the morning, the Air Force Command specified that overall russians launched 16 Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones from the Chauda Cape, a location in the eastern part of the Crimean peninsula, currently occupied by russian invasion forces. Mykola Oleshchuk, the Air Force Commander, published the following video.
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The footage shows Ukrainian mobile fire groups, armed with machine guns and spotlights, searching for Shahed drones in the night sky at an unspecified location in southern Ukraine. By the end of the clip, one of Shaheds is destroyed.
Apart from Shahed-type munitions, the russian forces also struck with five ballistic rockets launched from S-300 air defense systems and with two Kh-59 cruise missiles. For a reminder, Kh-59 is a relatively small target 4.2 meters in length which makes it exceptionally challenging to take down.
The attacks on southern regions have intensified since around March 5th, 2024, and have been almost daily since, only missing a few days, usually coming at night. Other regions are systematically attacked, too. Ukraine is traditionally repelling them with a combination of mobile fire groups and surface-to-air missile systems.
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