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Russia Launches Drone Attack Across Ukraine

by VOA News

   Russia launched a drone attack across Ukraine on Saturday.

   Ukraine's air force said its forces and mobile groups of drone hunters
   shot down 30 of the 31 Iranian-made Shahed drones targeting 11
   Ukrainian regions.

   The targeted areas included Kyiv, the capital, and the southern region
   of Kherson and the western region of Khmelnytsky.

   "The drones attacked in groups, in waves, and from different
   directions," said Shehiy Popko head of Kyiv's military administration.

   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address that
   he held a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in
   Lyiv on Friday. National government officials, including the prime
   minister, were also in attendance, according to Zelenskyy.

   He said "many issues were discussed" at the gathering because "it is
   very important for the government to be in constant communication with
   local governments and for community leaders to understand the current
   situation" in Ukraine.

   Also at the meeting, Zelenskyy said, the head of the security service
   of Ukraine delivered details about the detention of collaborators in
   Odesa, Kherson region, and Dnipro.

   Meanwhile, Ukraine has signed contracts for joint cooperation on
   technology weapons production with Western partners in its effort to
   boost its defense industry at home and to reduce dependence on Western
   military supplies.

   "We have dozens of new contracts between companies on joint production
   or technology exchange," Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said in a
   Facebook post.

   The drive to increase production at home has become critically
   important as the future of large-scale military aid from the United
   States and European Union appears more uncertain and Western stockpiles
   have become more depleted.

   Kyiv has hosted a number of conferences with members of the
   international defense industry. This week it held a conference with the
   largest British defense manufacturers, while last September it hosted
   more than 250 Western weapons producers, followed by a joint
   Ukraine-U.S. defense conference in Washington in December.

   "We signed a memorandum with the United States on joint production and
   technical data sharing," Umerov said.

   Ukraine is also seeking more agreements like its venture with German
   arms producer Rheinmetall AG to service and repair Western weapons, and
   an agreement with two American firms to jointly manufacture vital 155
   mm artillery shells.

   Domestic defense output has tripled in 2023, according to the strategic
   industries ministry, and is expected to increase six times more next
   year.