AP quoted Ukrainian officials as saying that Russian forces mainly targeted the area around the capital Kyiv in a nighttime drone attack that lasted about three hours, but Ukrainian air defense forces in the area shot down about 24 of them.
The attack in Kyiv is part of a wider bombardment of areas of Ukraine that extends as far as Lviv province in western Ukraine, near Poland.
The explosion of a drone is seen in the sky over Kyiv, Ukraine on June 20.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat confirmed that the Shahed UAVs flew to Lviv because the air defense system was not capable of covering a large area.
Air defense systems are mainly reserved for protecting large cities, critical infrastructure, including nuclear power plants and the front line, Ihnat added.
In Lviv province, a new Russian attack hit a key infrastructure facility, causing a fire, according to Governor Maksym Kozytskyi. Russia also targeted the Ukrainian province of Zaporizhzhia with ballistic missiles, according to AP.
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In recent times, Ukraine’s air defenses have been reinforced with sophisticated weapons from Western allies, allowing Ukraine to achieve a higher success rate against incoming UAVs and missiles. Previously, a Russian winter bombing campaign had damaged Ukraine’s power supply.
The new Russian airstrikes come amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south. The counteroffensive is taking place in heavily mined terrain and fortified fortifications, according to Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Meanwhile, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on June 20 that the US military believes Ukraine has everything it needs to succeed on the battlefield, according to RT.
“We know there will be casualties on the battlefield. That’s an unfortunate part of this war, but it’s something we’ve seen the Ukrainians overcome from the very beginning,” Singh said in response to a question about Ukrainian casualties. “We know it’s going to be a tough fight. We know it’s going to take time,” Singh said.
Russia turns captured tanks from Ukraine into 'suicide' tanks
Ms Singh spoke a day after The New York Times reported that some cemeteries in western Ukraine were digging up old graves to make way for new ones amid “seemingly endless funerals”.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine had lost more than 600 armored vehicles, including 186 tanks, in less than two weeks of fighting and that “it would be impossible to wage such a war for a long time” if Kyiv relied solely on Western arms supplies, according to RT.
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