On the night of March 5, Russian forces launched a massive attack on Ukrainian territory, using 155 strike drones of various types, including Shahed, “Herber,” “Italmas,” and other models. According to the Air Force Command, the attacks were carried out from the directions of Bryansk, Kursk, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, as well as from temporarily occupied areas of Crimea — Hvardiyske and Chauda.
This is reported by Finway
Effective Work of Ukrainian Air Defense
According to preliminary information, as of 08:00, Ukrainian air defense forces managed to shoot down or suppress 136 enemy unmanned aerial vehicles. The Air Force also reported hits on 18 strike drones in eight different locations, with debris from the downed aircraft falling in three areas.
“According to preliminary data, as of 08:00, air defense has shot down/suppressed 136 enemy UAVs.”
Consequences of the Attacks and International Assessment
Russian military forces regularly use various types of weapons — strike drones, missiles, aerial bombs, and multiple launch rocket systems — to attack Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure across the country. Ukrainian authorities, along with international organizations, qualify these actions as war crimes, emphasizing their targeted nature.
Shelling of life-support systems, medical facilities, depriving the population of electricity, heat, water supply, communication, and medical assistance exhibits signs of genocidal actions. During the full-scale war, Russia commits crimes that fall under the definition of genocide, including the destruction of Ukrainian identity, extermination of the intelligentsia, persecution of pro-Ukrainian individuals, deportation of children, and destruction of cultural values.
Notable public statements by representatives of the Russian authorities deny the existence of Ukrainians as an ethnicity and call for their destruction. Such actions directly violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the UN in 1948, which obliges 149 participating countries to prevent acts of genocide and punish them at any time.
The Convention defines genocide as actions aimed at the total or partial destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Signs of genocide include killings, causing serious bodily harm, creating conditions intended for the destruction of the group, obstructing childbirth, forcibly transferring children, and publicly inciting such actions.
The leadership of Russia continues to deny targeted strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, but the facts of massive shelling of hospitals, schools, energy facilities, and water supply systems indicate otherwise.