Air defense shot down 14 Shahed drones at night, and an enemy Su-34 fighter jet was eliminated in the east

On the night of March 2, Russian troops attacked Ukraine with 17 Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones and three Kh-59/Kh-35 air missiles.

According to the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 14 drones were shot down — they were eliminated within the Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

There were drone strikes. In Odessa, a drone hit a nine-story building, collapsing the entrance. Two people died and eight others were injured, but the number of victims may rise as search operations continue. Five garages and 17 cars were damaged in Kharkiv. There were no fatalities, only three people sought help with an acute stress reaction.

The Air Force also reported the downing of another Russian Su-34 fighter jet in the eastern direction. It happened around 9 a.m. on March 1. This fighter tried to strike the positions of the Ukrainian troops with guided aerial bombs.

• According to the official data of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since the beginning of 2024, Ukrainian forces shot down two enemy A-50 long-range radar detection and control aircraft, one Il-22 transport aircraft, 11 Su-34 fighter-bombers and two Su-35 multi-purpose fighters.
• Yuriy Ignat, the spokesman of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, explained that such a number of destroyed aircraft became possible thanks to the elimination of the A-50 — Russian pilots receive less information about the radar stations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and air defense equipment, and therefore are more vulnerable.
• According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, as of March 2, 2024, during the full-scale invasion, Russia lost 347 aircraft and 325 helicopters.