UKRAINE, KYIV, Jul 4 — On the night of July 4, Russian troops massively shelled Ukraine with 550 air strikes, including drones and missiles of various types. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said that “dozens” of targets were shot down thanks to the launch of interceptor drones.

The main task of interceptor drones is to destroy air targets as part of air defense operations. In Ukraine, the first interceptor drone project appeared in October 2022. 

In February 2024, the Ukrainian military successfully used an interceptor drone for the first time to shoot down a Russian kamikaze drone, said Ukrainian media Glavkom.

Russia launched most of its air strikes on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Attacks were also recorded in Dnipro, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions.

Air Forces said that Russian troops used 550 means to attack Ukraine, including:

  • 539 attack drones (more than 330 of them were Shahed drones) and various types of imitator drones;
  • one Kh-47 M2 Kinzhal aerial ballistic missile;
  • six Iskander-M\KN-23 ballistic missiles;
  • four Iskander-K missiles.

The Ukrainian military successfully shot down 270 air targets, and another 208 drones were suppressed by electronic warfare.

Zelenskyy said that the first air raid alerts in Ukraine began almost at the same time as the start of media discussions of the US President Donald Trump’s phone call with Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader.

Trump and Zelenskiy planned a July 4 phone call to discuss the recently announced pause in US arms shipments to Kyiv.

After the press reported on the Pentagon’s freeze to shipments, on July 3, speaking to journalists, Trump said that Washington continues to provide weapons to Ukraine despite concerns about depleting its arsenals.

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