The Dnipro Oblast Military Administration has officially appealed to the Ukrainian government, asking it not to extend the updated air-raid alert grading — the “red” and “yellow” levels — to this frontline region. This was stated by the head of the OVA, Oleksandr Hanza, on air during the tele-marathon, as reported by RBC-Ukraine. According to him, the region is asking to keep the air-raid alert announcement “as it was,” that is, in the previous single format, without color differentiation.
Statement by the Head of the OVA
“We have already appealed to the government so that the ‘red’ and ‘yellow’ levels are not extended to Dnipro Oblast. So that the air-raid alert announcement remains as it was,” Hanza emphasized. In his explanation, in a frontline region it is physically impossible to monitor and correctly apply the level grading, since shelling there occurs almost constantly. “Moreover, Pavlograd is a frontline district. It is constantly under shelling,” the head of the regional administration added, pointing to a specific settlement where the threat does not cease for a single day.
How the New Alert System Works
The context of the request is linked to the fact that since September 6, Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine have been operating an updated system for alerting about air threats, in which the color of the signal indicates a specific type of danger. The “yellow” level indicates a threat from drones — in particular, when individual strike or reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles are detected. The “red” level is declared in the event of a massive drone, missile, or combined missile-drone attack. It is precisely this differentiation, in the view of the Dnipro OVA, that is not applicable to the conditions of constant frontline shelling.
Frontline Reality and Related Changes
The region's logic comes down to the fact that under conditions of continuous shelling, introducing a multi-level scale would only complicate alerting without real benefit for the population, which already has to stay in shelters constantly. In parallel, the Kyiv City Council of Defense decided to shorten the duration of the curfew, and corresponding changes were made to the operating schedule of the city's public transport — this demonstrates that authorities at different levels are adapting the alert regime to the local situation.
Contradictory Data
It is important to distinguish two facts. First, the appeal by the Dnipro OVA is a request, not an already adopted decision: until an official response from the government, the updated level system formally continues to operate both on the territory of the oblast, and the region's “rejection” of the “red” and “yellow” levels has not yet taken effect. Second, current reports of nighttime strikes on Dnipro — including a fire in a five-story building and casualties, the consequences of which the head of the OVA published photos of — confirm that the air threat in the region remains real and high. Thus, the oblast's position does not deny the danger itself, but only proposes to simplify the signal format to a single one, which, according to Hanza's assessment, better corresponds to the conditions of constant frontline shelling. The final decision on whether the request will be granted lies with the government.
