Conflicts & War

Ukrainian authorities warn civilians against shooting down drones

By Rostyslav Averchuk

Lviv, Ukraine, Oct 18 (EFE).- Ukrainian authorities warned civilians against shooting down Iranian-manufactures suicide drones while accusing Tehran of being a complice in Russian aggression.

The ongoing attacks against multiple targets in Ukraine have prompted discussions among Ukrainian civilians on how to counter the threat, with posts on social networks encouraging Ukrainians in possession of firearms to shoot down drones.

But Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Denys Monastyrskyi, advised against the measures, warning the probability of disabling a drone with a firearm was very low while the risks to the shooter and people around them was relatively high.

Bomb shelters remains the single most important thing the civilian population can do to protect itself from the drones, Viktor Kevliuk, military analyst at the Center for Defense Strategies, told Efe.

But despite air alarms and sirens going off multiple times a day and night, many Ukrainains choose to stay in their apartments and follow the two-walls rule — two walls that protect you from the outside, one wall stops the projectile and the other protects from shell-splinters.

Yuriy Butusov, Ukrainian military journalist and editor at Censor.net media, said that as well as terrorizing the civilian population and destroying Ukrainian infrastructure, drone attacks are trying to liquidate Ukrainian air-defense systems.

“The battle for control of the air is a key prerequisite for the strategic offensive operation of the Russian Armed Forces,” Butusov posted on his Facebook page.

The journalist added that Russia is attacking civilian targets in an attempt to force Ukraine to move its air defense systems from the frontline while making it more stationary and thus more vulnerable to Russian attacks.

The Ukrainian National Resistance group at the Special Operations Forces of the Ukrainian Army said on Monday that some 20 Iranian instructors were seen in the southern Kherson region.

The underground resistance group claims Iranains are teaching Russians how to use kamikaze drones and monitoring the launch of drones against Ukrainian civilian targets.

“Providing weapons for waging a war of aggression in Ukraine and killing Ukrainian citizens makes Iran complicit in the crime of aggression, war crimes and terrorist acts by Russia against Ukraine,” Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.

Iran has denied allegations that it has supplied drones to Russia. EFE

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