FALCON POWERS – The Russian military announced on Sunday the capture of two small towns in eastern Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily briefing that “units of the Western group liberated the towns of Rozovka (Andriyivka in Ukrainian) and Nizhny Beshtanyi (Beshtani in Ukrainian)”.
The two towns, which have been inhabited by a limited number of residents since before the outbreak of the war in February 2022, are located in the Luhansk and Kharkiv regions respectively, about 15 km apart.
Since last fall, the Ukrainian army, which lacks manpower and equipment, has faced Russian attacks along the nearly 1,000 km front line. Russian forces in the east have captured several towns in recent weeks. They are currently focused in the Donetsk region on reaching the cities of Novoyisk and Toretsk.
In this context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his country needs long-range weapons to protect its cities and forces on the front lines from Russian bombs and drones, after Ukraine was hit by a major attack with drones and missiles overnight.
The Ukrainian military said earlier today that Russia had launched its fifth drone attack on Kyiv in two weeks, adding that the Ukrainian air defense systems had destroyed all the aerial weapons before they reached the capital.
The Ukrainian Air Force said via Telegram that the air defense systems had destroyed 35 out of 39 drones and cruise missiles launched by Russia during the night. It added that the weapons targeted ten regions in Ukraine.
Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, wrote on Telegram that the authorities had not received reports of any casualties or major damage so far.
Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post: “Just last night, the Russian army launched about 40 Shahed drones on Ukraine. Most importantly, our defenses shot down most of them.”
