Russia shoots down all drones launched at Ukraine after Putin's phone call with Trump

Russia shot down its own drones launched at Ukraine following an order from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on its Telegram.

On March 18, Putin held negotiations with US President Donald Trump. During the conversation, the Russian leader agreed to the American counterpart’s proposal to exclude energy infrastructure targets.

The military received the order after a group of drones had already been directed at Ukrainian energy facilities and launched, the defense ministry noted. As a result, a decision was made to eliminate them. To uphold the reached agreement, six drones were shot down by a Pantsir air defense system, while another drone was intercepted by a Russian Aerospace Forces fighter jet, the ministry added.

At the same time, Kyiv, despite the agreement between Putin and Trump, continued attacks on energy infrastructure, striking an oil transfer facility in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the defense ministry emphasized. Following the attack, one of the storage tanks was depressurized.

Details

The Pantsir (Russian: Панцирь, lit. '[body] armour') missile system is a family of self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery systems. Three types of vehicles make up one system: a missile launcher, a radar truck and a command post. Starting with the Pantsir-S1 (Russian: Панцирь-С1, NATO reporting name SA-22 Greyhound) as the first version, it is produced by KBP Instrument Design Bureau of Tula, Russia, and is the successor to the Tunguska M1. The Pantsir-S1 was designed to provide point air defence of military, industrial and administrative installations against aircraft, helicopters, precision munitions, cruise missiles and UAVs; and to provide additional protection to air defence units against enemy air attacks employing precision munitions, especially at low to extremely low altitudes.