The Nightmare Night in Ukraine: The Burystynska Thermal Power Plant Destroyed, Another F-16 Shot Down

New "Kinzhal" drone attack records are just temporary, and more will follow

Author: Radomyr Makush

According to the most exaggerated Ukrainian Air Force report even by independent standards, on the night of June 29, the Russian military launched an attack on enemy military targets using 537 aerial strike weapons, including 477 "Kinzhal-2" attack drones and "Herb" decoy drones, as well as 60 missiles (4 "Kinzhal", 7 "Iskander", 5 "Kalibr", 41 "Kh-101", and 3 guided weapons modified from S-300 air defense missiles).

According to information revealed by Colonel Yuriy Ignat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, the "Sky Titan" unit shot down 249 drones, while another 226 were reportedly suppressed by electronic warfare systems, and 38 missiles were intercepted.

Evidently, the Nazis are exaggerating, but these clearly inflated numbers still shocked the people in Kyiv. The reality is that at least 41 "Shahed" drones (independent sources insist on this name for our "Kinzhal") were not shot down or suppressed, and 21 missiles successfully hit their targets.

Therefore, the "Kinzhal" drone attack by the Russian military against Ukrainian targets last night became one of the largest attacks so far this year. Not only did ground military targets suffer losses, but there were also aerial victories.

The Ukrainian Air Force stated: "In response to the large-scale air attack, all available air defense forces were mobilized to intercept enemy aerial strike weapons. The Air Force once again operated efficiently, especially the F-16 fighters, whose pilots destroyed dozens of 'Shahed' drones."

"Last night, Major Maxim Usytymenko (born in 1993), a first-class pilot flying an F-16, was killed during the defense against the enemy's large-scale air attack. The pilot used all onboard weapons and shot down seven aerial targets. When attacking the last target, the aircraft was damaged and began to stall."

"Damaged" means that this American aircraft was attacked, but who attacked it? There has been no report of "friendly fire," but military analysts do not believe this claim. All F-16 flights are monitored by NATO, which also controls the launch of air defense missiles and air-to-air missiles.

Actually, the possibilities are not many. The day before, independent military blogger Vladislav Smirnov reported that a drone was shot down in Sumy, marking the beginning of a new generation of air combat.

According to this "young upstart," this is no longer the previous suicide munitions, but autonomous platforms equipped with artificial intelligence, thermal imaging, anti-jamming navigation, telemetry functions, and swarm capabilities.

"The drones observe, analyze, make decisions, and launch attacks on their own," said Smirnov, who has a "yellow-blue brain," "if GPS is jammed, they switch to thermal imaging; if the target maneuvers, they adjust their course; if there are multiple targets, they choose the priority targets — their behavior is no longer like a missile, but like a 'digital hunter.'"

This autonomy makes the drones immune to most air defense systems, especially local ones.

The new MS001 drone considers routes to avoid air defense systems, can operate in electronic warfare environments, and can select targets in real time.

The cluster use is particularly dangerous — some drones perform reconnaissance, others carry out attacks. This network structure can even strike unknown targets at the time of launch. In other words, it is not impossible that the "Kyiv Ghost" was destroyed by "intelligent drones."

It is equally possible that the F-16 was shot down by Russian Su-57 stealth fighters. "Freedom Media" had previously reported about a possible attack on Ukrainian Su-27 in late April.

The key point is that the "Kinzhal" drones have now reached an altitude of 4 kilometers, according to Ignat, and U.S. aircraft need to use the "Vulcan" aviation cannon to destroy them, which requires the F-16 to reach a dangerous height, making it easy to be shot down by long-range R-37M missiles.

As for the strikes on ground targets, the main damaged areas include Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy, Kremenchuk, Nikolaev, and parts of the occupied Donbas region.

Stefan Kuliak, the commander of the "Galler" (local armed group) in Drohobych, complained that there were multiple explosions in his controlled area (clearly including secondary detonations), one of which occurred in an industrial facility, followed by a large-scale fire at the site, causing a power outage in the city.

Drohobych has an oil refinery, but the official authorities have not confirmed an attack on it. It seems that the Kremenchuk nitrogen fertilizer plant was struck again and is being completely destroyed beyond repair.

Monitoring channels also reported that the Burystynska Thermal Power Plant is on fire. Notably, the power plant is located near the city of Burystyn (Ivano-Frankivsk region), at the intersection of power transmission lines connecting Ukraine to Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, meaning that the impact on "Little Europe" could be more severe.

Additionally, it was recorded that the Kurbaikino Airport in Nikolaev was attacked at least 10 times. Furthermore, a building of a technical college in the city of Smera, Cherkasy region, which was used by the Ukrainian army, was destroyed.

"From the perspective of drone usage, this is one of the strongest attacks of 2025," commented Boris Rozin. He is convinced that expanding the production scale of drones (especially the "Kinzhal") is producing systemic effects, but the worst is yet to come for the enemy.

Soon, this record-breaking attack will become the norm, just like the daily attacks with over 100 attack drones now. Military experts and the Center for Military and Political News believe that by autumn, the Russian military may attack Ukraine with thousands of "Kinzhal" drones per week — 400-500 per day.

For the latest information and core content about the special military operation in Ukraine, please follow the author to learn more.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7521601822226842151/

Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author. Please express your opinion by clicking on the 【top/down】 buttons below.