According to a Ukrainian military spokesman, Ukrainian air defenses have just shot down four of Vladimir Putin’s attack helicopters.
The head of the Ukrainian air force stated that since last Friday, two Russian fighter jets and two military helicopters had been shot down.
A Russian Ka-52 helicopter was struck by an anti-aircraft missile last night around 11 p.m., according to Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian air force.
According to sources, a second helicopter was shot down on Friday, and two fighter jets were shot down over the weekend.
The claims could not be independently verified.
It happens after yesterday’s Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border town of Valuiki caused at least eight casualties.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Russian Belgorod area, acknowledged that a total of 40 artillery projectiles and 14 Grad shells were launched at the town of Valuiki on Telegram. He also added that the shelling caused damage to five apartment complexes, four private homes, and three cars.
Ukraine says it successfully deploys 1,000 km drone
Ukraine has successfully used a domestically produced drone with a range of 1,000 km (620 miles), state arms producer Ukroboronprom said on Tuesday.
Ukroboronprom spokesperson Natalia Sad posted a selfie with a smiling Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Mykola Oleshchuk, commander for the air force, and Yurii Husev, head of Ukroboronprom on Facebook. She said the picture was taken “after successful use of our drone for 1000 km”.
She didn’t give any additional information or specify whether the drone’s use meant it had been tried out or really used in the conflict.
The military, the government, and private enterprises in Ukraine are attempting to develop a fleet of low-cost, easily-produced drones that they hope will be a game-changer in their conflict with Russia. Drones have previously been used by it in both strikes and reconnaissance.
Ukroboronprom declared in the fall of 2022 that it was nearing completion on a new drone with a 1000 km range and a 75 kilogram warhead.
According to legislator Yaroslav Zheleznyak on Telegram, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed legislation on Tuesday exempting domestic drone producers from customs taxes and value-added tax.
‘You break it, you bought it,’ foreign secretary warns Putin as new sanctions legislation put in place
The idea to keep sanctions in place until Russian reparations to Ukraine were paid, said to foreign minister James Cleverly, “follows that simple premise that you break it, you bought it.”
The Government has outlined ideas for new regulations that will allow sanctions against Russian oligarchs, people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and those associated with his war machine to be maintained until compensation is paid.
The UK is enacting new law that opens up a new channel for sanctioned people to give frozen money to Ukraine’s rehabilitation.
“There is a very strong principle of natural justice, whereby a significant, perhaps even the majority, burden for the rebuilding should sit on the shoulders of those who have been responsible for funding or facilitated this brutal, full scale invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
Comedian Dom Joly calls for Ukrainian children to be supported
Comedian Dom Joly has called for support for children who are being mentally and physically impacted in Ukraine, saying: “Whatever your views on conflicts… they are not to blame.”
The comedian and Save The Children ambassador, who was up in Beirut during the Lebanon Civil War, recently paid a visit to the shell- and missile-damaged city of Mykolaiv and the nearby towns.
Joly recorded his interactions with families who had survived months of intense combat in their hometowns and are now working to reconstruct their homes, schools, and communities.
He told the PA news agency: “Whatever your views on conflicts, who’s right, who’s wrong, what the political rightness is of the whole situation, kids certainly didn’t ask to be in that situation.
“They are not to blame and they’re not making any choices in that.
“And I think they’re also the most vulnerable.”
He said that after traveling to eastern Ukraine with the charity in 2018, he “didn’t quite realise how challenging it would be” this time.
The impact on mental health, according to Joly, is a “massive issue” based only on his observations of the kids in these impacted locations.
“We met kids that had been literally standing on train stations with shells landing around them, not knowing whether their mother had survived,” he recalled.
“But apart from anything else, the fact that you’ve had to leave your house, you leave all your friends, you move to a new area, you have no schooling.
“So just even the fact that kids spent a vast amount of time in shelters at the moment underground in Ukraine, they do most of their education online, so it’s very isolating.”
