Daily Flyer - March 14, 2023

A voice of Ukraine to the West

Daily Flyer - March 14, 2023

Russia says a US drone threatened Crimea and fell into the Black Sea.

The Ministry of Defence of Russia stated on the evening of Tuesday that their Su-27 fighter jets had nothing to do with the crash of the MQ-9 Reaper American UAV in the Black Sea. In addition, they said it approached annexed Crimea and was flying with violations.

The Russian Defence Ministry states that the American UAV was flying "towards the state border of the Russian Federation" with transponders turned off and "violating the borders of the area of a temporary airspace use regime."

"To identify an intruder, fighter jets of air defense units took off. As a result of a maneuver, MQ-9 UAV started to fly uncontrollably, losing the flight altitude and crashing with the water surface," - the Russian Defence Ministry reported.

Russia shelled Nikopol raion from a drone: cars burned, and gas pipelines were damaged.

On Tuesday, Russian military personnel shelled Nikopol city and the Nikopol raion of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, from a drone, resulting in civilian cars, outbuildings, and private houses were damaged.

From morning to evening, Nikopol raion suffered from shelling. The enemy attacked the area with heavy artillery and UAVs. Rescuers liquidated the fire: ‘A store, a private enterprise, ten houses, five outbuildings, and a minibus were damaged. Two cars were mutilated, and another was destroyed. Gas pipelines and power lines were broken.

Air Force explains how Russia terrorized Ukrainians with alarms on 14 March.

Air alarms in Ukraine on 14 March were caused by the activity of Russian tactical aviation, the threat of launches of ballistic missiles, and the flights of a MiG-31K interceptor jet.

According to Yurii Ihnat, Air Force spokesman Colonel after 10:00 (Kyiv time), the alarm was sounded in the southern, northern, and eastern oblasts of our state due to the activity of tactical aviation.

In Ukraine's south, Su-24 aircraft launched 4 X-31P anti-radar missiles in the direction of the coast, using air defense systems in Odesa.

The Air Force cannot shoot down these high-speed targets (X-31) with the weapons currently at its disposal.  At the same time, as Ihnat clarified, there are different methods of countering these missiles (the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces radars can be turned off – ed.) so the enemy missiles do not reach their targets. However, the fragments of one of these caused damage to the local infrastructure.

Since 10:27 a.m., there has been a threat of the use of operational-tactical Iskander missiles in Ukraine's east.

At 15:26 (Kyiv time), the Air Force spokesman said that a large-scale air-raid alarm sounded due to the threat of Russia’s use of ballistic missiles.

Three more alarms all over Ukraine [at 13.00, 14.30, and 16.30 (Kyiv time) – ed.] were announced due to the takeoff of a MiG-31K fighter jet capable of carrying Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles from the Savasleyka (air base) air base in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

"The air alarms related to the MiG were short-lived. They were probably training flights or maneuvers. However, the threat of the Kinzhal missile [launch], against which the Air Defence of Ukraine has no countermeasures, can never be ignored,"- said Yuri Ihnat.