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A video footage capturing the impact of a sport aircraft converted
into a drone, hitting a target in Tatarstan.
A refinery fire in Tatarstan. A hit on the refinery in the city of Oriol.
captured the village of Ocheretyne near
Avdiivka. It seemed they had driven a wedge
into the Ukrainian defense and could create
a breakthrough. However, the Ukrainian
defense stopped them, and they did not
advance further west from Ocheretyne over
the next month. The occupiers also repeatedly
announced the capture of the village of
Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region
and the settlement of Krynky on the left bank
of the Dnipro in the Kherson region. Neither
announcement was true.
Civilians Suffer
The lack of air defense systems and missiles
for them caused frontline defenders to face
massive air raids throughout the observed
period. Russian aviation did not only use glide
bombs launched far from the front. Aircraft
providing close air support, such as the
Su-25, were moving directly over the combat
area, likely for the first time since spring 2022.
The Ukrainian interior also faced strong air
attacks. Practically every night, the Russians
sent small groups of drones to Ukrainian cities,
which burdened the Ukrainian air defense.
Occasionally, they launched larger attacks
with missiles and cruise missiles. For example,
on Thursday, April 11, the Russians launched
a total of 82 projectiles—40 drones, six
Kinzhals, 12 S-300 missiles, 20 Kh-101/555
missiles, and other rockets. The Ukrainian
defense destroyed 57 of them, but they lacked
the ammunition to intercept more. Due to the
shortage of anti-aircraft missiles, even the
Kyiv region was no longer as well protected as
before.
In this attack, the Trypilska thermal power
plant, which supplied 50% of the electricity
for the Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions,
was completely destroyed. It was targeted
by eleven missiles. The Ukrainian defense
destroyed seven of them, but the remaining
four scored the direct hits.
On the night of April 24-25, Russian missiles
severely damaged four more power plants.
Since the beginning of the war, the Russians
have hit Ukrainian power plants 180 times. For
example, the private company DTEK has lost
80% of its thermal plant capacities. It will take
years to repairs some of the power plants.
Other civilian targets were also hit,
unfortunately with tragic consequences. In the
morning of Wednesday, April 17, a missile struck
an eight-story apartment building in Chernihiv.
Four other apartment buildings, a hospital,
and a school were damaged. Eighteen people
died, and 78 were injured. At the end of April,
a psychiatric hospital and a TV transmitter
were hit in Kharkiv. The transmitter broke in
half and collapsed. In Odesa, 22 residential
buildings were hit during an air raid. Earlier,
on Saturday, April 20, the port and an export
terminal belonging to a Singaporean company
were hit.
Russia increasingly uses so-called double
strikes, sending a second missile to the same
place after a delay to kill rescuers clearing
the aftermath of the first attack. This tactic
was employed in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia at
the beginning of the observed period. Russian
double strikes have killed 91 rescuers and
injured 348 others by April this year. Kharkiv
was subjected to heavy shelling throughout
the observed period. This was preparation for
a ground attack, which will be discussed in
the next part of this series, the end of which is
unfortunately not in sight.
Russian Airports Under Fire
The Ukrainian side also attacked Russian
targets throughout the observed period. There
is a stark contrast in target selection. Unlike
the Russian targets, they did not primarily
include hospitals or residential buildings.
On the night of April 4-5, the Ukrainian
armed forces, along with the SBU, launched
a massive attack on Russian airfields.
The bases attacked included Morozovsk,
which houses Su-34 aircraft, Yeysk airport
on the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov, home
to Su-34 and Su-25 aircraft, the strategic
bomber base Engels, and Kursk airport.
The attack was extensive, with around
50 explosions reported at Morozovsk alone.
The Ukrainian side estimated the destruction of
several aircraft, but this was not immediately
confirmed. Satellite images suggested that the
drones landed far from the parked aircraft.
This highlights the disadvantage of drones, as
they cannot be controlled over long distances
to select targets based on importance. They hit
pre-programmed coordinates. A few days later,
it was revealed that at least one aircraft at
Yeysk airport, an amphibious jet Beriev Be-200,
was seriously damaged. Part of its left wing
was broken off, and a large puddle of leaked
fluids, presumably fuel, was under the aircraft.
At the beginning of the observed period,
Ukrainian drones also repeatedly attacked
Russian Tatarstan. This is significant for
two reasons. Tatarstan is 1,300 km from
the Ukrainian border, making it the farthest
target the Ukrainians have hit. Video from the
attack showed they used light sports aircraft
modified into unmanned aerial vehicles.
In this case, they served as kamikaze drones,
but with a bomb mounted under the fuselage,
they can be reused. In Tatarstan, a refinery,
a drone assembly plant, and a factory
producing Tu-22M and Tu-160M bombers were
hit. The production hangar in the latter was
reportedly hit, but the extent of the damage is
unclear.
During the observed period, Ukrainians
also hit several refineries, fuel depots, and
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