In the south, Russian troops have increased their use of loitering munitions such as Lancet, Molniia, Kub, and Privet-82.
This was stated by Vladislav Voloshyn, spokesman for the Southern Defense Forces, in a comment to Ukrinform.
“The enemy has slightly increased the use of loitering munitions such as Lancet, Molniia, Kub, and Privet-82. They are being used in certain areas of the front line because they have a longer range. Although they carry less ammunition, they fly further, and the enemy is trying to use them to strike our rear,” he said.
Voloshyn noted that Russian troops are striking most heavily with loitering munitions in the direction of Ochakiv in the Mykolaiv region.
“He [the enemy] is striking there from the Kinburn Spit, so range is important to him, which is why he uses such munitions quite often,” he explained.
The spokesman noted that the enemy is also striking in other directions, in particular in Zaporizhzhia, with the aim of expanding the circle zone to cut off the front line of the Defense Forces.
Also, according to Voloshyn, the enemy is increasing the number of unguided air missiles used.
“It is increasing the number of air strikes and the number of these missiles in a single strike,” the spokesman said.
According to Voloshin, the enemy is carrying out massive air strikes with unguided air missiles on settlements located on the right bank of the Dnipro River. In particular, yesterday it launched a massive air strike on the settlement of Kozatske near the destroyed Kakhovka dam.
“More than 60 unguided air missiles were fired at it [Kozatske] yesterday. Today, the enemy launched a similar massive strike on Olhivka with 72 unguided aviation missiles,” he added.
The spokesman noted that the Russians are also actively using guided aviation bombs, in particular, an enemy strike was carried out on Kherson over the past day.
“This morning, the enemy attacked the regional center of Zaporizhzhia with ballistic missiles from Crimea. The strike was delivered on a residential area, and there are more than two dozen civilian casualties,” Voloshyn said.
He noted that the enemy carries out up to 30-35 shellings of settlements located near the line of combat contact every day, in particular, up to 10 such shellings and strikes are recorded by the Defense Forces in Nikopol and Kherson.
“Over the past day, the enemy has launched a massive strike on the settlement of Novoiakovlivka near Zaporizhzhia with these guided aerial bombs, and such strikes have become more frequent recently,” the spokesman emphasized.
As reported by Ukrinform, over the past day, August 17, there were 182 combat clashes between the Defense Forces and Russian invaders, 58 of them in the Pokrovsk direction.
Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
