Air defense forces destroy 5 Shahed drones in Ukraine’s south

That’s according to Natalia Humeniuk, head of the Operational Command South press service, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Now we are observing intensified deployment of reconnaissance drones, which implies that the enemy has taken a certain pause to collect information. But even this pause was filled with the sounds of Shaheds in our operational zone. Ukraine’s defense forces destroyed three of them that were heading via Mykolaiv region to the central part of Ukraine. All three were destroyed over the territory of Kirovohrad region and Mykolaiv region, and two more were downed over Dnipropetrovsk region. This is a small wave of Shaheds aimed at reconnoitering our air defense response," Humeniuk said.

According to the spokesperson, these efforts on the part of the enemy indicate that the Russians are trying to gather more intelligence, including on Ukraine’s port infrastructure in the area. Russian UAVs are launched from over the Black Sea and toward the Ukrainian coastline, the spokeswoman added.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in the early hours of Saturday, the Russians launched more missile and air strikes against Ukraine.