Ukraine’s air defense forces shoot down eight enemy Shahed UAVs, five missiles

Ukrainian Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk announced this on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

According to him, on the night of August 18, the Russians attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles launched from Russia’s Kursk and Voronezh regions, cruise and guided missiles, and Shahed attack UAVs launched from the Kursk region.

In total, the Air Force's radio engineering troops detected 16 aerial targets: one Iskander-M ballistic missile, two KN-23 ballistic missiles, two Kh-59 guided missiles, three cruise missiles (type to be specified), eight Shahed-131/136 attack UAVs.

The Air Force anti-aircraft missile forces, mobile firing groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and EW units shot down 13 aerial targets within the Kyiv, Sumy and Poltava regions: two KN-23 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles (type to be specified), eight Shahed-131/136 attack drones. 

The rest of the missiles that were not included in the statistics of those shot down did not reach their intended targets, Oleshchuk explained.  

According to preliminary reports, there were no casualties.

As reported by Ukrinform, on the morning of August 18, an air alert was announced twice in Kyiv and a number of regions. The air defense was activated.