Russia launches 45 drones in major attack on Ukraine

Russian forces They launched 45 drones against Ukraine Sunday in a five-and-a-half-hour flurry, officials said, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued his war cabinet overhaul as the war enters its third year.

In a statement, the Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 40 of the Shahed drones launched over nine different regions, including the outskirts of the country’s capital, kyiv.

The five-and-a-half-hour attack hit agricultural facilities and coastal infrastructure, defense forces officials in southern Ukraine wrote on Telegram. The attack in the Mykolaiv region injured one person, started a fire and damaged nearby residential buildings.

Another person was injured in the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk by a fire caused by fallen debris from a destroyed drone, said the head of the region’s military administration, Serhiy Lysak.

The attack occurred as Zelenskyy continued his changes in the military leadership in an attempt to continue to stand up to the attacking Russian forces.

Kyiv announced on Sunday that former Deputy Defense Minister Lieutenant General Alexander Pavlyuk would become the new commander of the Ukrainian ground forces. The position was until now held by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who on Thursday was appointed as a replacement for the outgoing military chief, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

The new presidential decrees also named Yurii Sodol, former head of the Ukrainian marines, as the new commander of the combined Ukrainian forces; Brigadier General Ihor Skibiuk as commander of the Ukrainian air assault forces, and Major General Ihor Plahuta as commander of the Ukrainian territorial defense forces.

New commander-in-chief Syrskyi has indicated that his immediate goals include improving troop rotation on the front and harnessing the power of new technologies at a time when kyiv’s forces are primarily on the defensive.

Ukraine’s military intelligence service said Sunday that it found that Russian forces had turned to the terminals starlink to carry out his attack. As evidence, he released what he said was a recording of an intercepted conversation between two Russian soldiers.

Starlink terminals, which use a series of satellites operated by the company SpaceXby billionaire Elon Musk, to provide high-speed communications, have been vital in giving the Ukrainian military an advantage over invading Russian troops.

However, in recent weeks Ukrainian media outlets have published several reports that Russian troops are using Starlink on the front lines in occupied areas of Ukraine.

This prompted SpaceX to issue a statement on social media on February 8 stating that it does not do “business of any kind with the Russian government or its military forces.”

However, Western technological components have regularly been found in the Russian arsenal, as Moscow has become more adept at circumventing sanctions, often importing goods through third countries.

In a statement on Telegram on Saturday, Zelenskyy said he hoped to “reset” the leadership of the Ukrainian armed forces with commanders with combat experience.

“Now, people who are known in the army and who know well what the army needs are assuming new responsibilities”said.