Russia launched a combined air attack on Kyiv for the first time in 73 days, Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration, announced this morning. According to him, the invading army attacked the Ukrainian capital with cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones. The Ukrainian Air Force announced the downing of four Russian missiles and 37 drones out of a total of 96 deployed air weapons. According to Reuters, explosions were heard over Kyiv. The consequences of the strike are not yet entirely clear.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is launching a missile attack on Kiev,” wrote Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, on the Telegram platform.
Popko later wrote on the same platform that the authorities in the metropolis declared an alarm due to the threat of drones, but missiles with a flat trajectory were also aimed at the Kyiv region, and the invading army subsequently fired ballistic missiles as well. “The enemy attack was ended by another drone strike,” Popko said. According to him, the Ukrainian air defense destroyed an unspecified number of missiles and a dozen drones. Popko noted that he had no reports of damage or casualties in Kyiv at the time.
The Ukrainian Air Force later announced the nighttime downing of two Ch-101 cruise missiles, two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles, as well as 37 drones. According to him, another 47 drones disappeared from the radar and two left the airspace of Ukraine in the direction of Belarus and Russia. “The other two drones are still in the air,” the air force added. In total, according to them, the Russians sent 96 aerial weapons to Ukraine at night, namely 90 drones and six missiles. They do not mention the fate of the remaining drones and two S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.
Due to the Russian attack, the Ukrainian authorities declared an alarm throughout the country this morning. At the time, the Russian version of the BBC wrote that attack drones were recorded in various regions of Ukraine.
Kyiv has been facing Russian drone attacks almost every night for weeks, Reuters reported. Despite regular drone attacks, Russia has not hit Kiev with missiles since late August, when it launched a large-scale attack across the country that Ukrainian authorities said involved more than 200 drones and missiles, leaving seven people dead, Reuters noted.
According to the agency, Ukrainians have been nervously awaiting the next major Russian missile attack for months, fearing that it could deal a blow to the country’s already damaged energy system. At the same time, the winter season is coming and, according to Reuters, there are fears of further long outages in energy supplies, as the country has already experienced due to Russian attacks in the past.
Ukraine has been resisting large-scale Russian military aggression since February 2022, when Moscow launched an invasion of its neighbor’s territory.
For some time, Russia has also started reporting on Ukrainian drone attacks on its territory, which, according to media reports, often target military bases or oil facilities. Today, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported the downing of 29 Ukrainian drones over six Russian regions. There is no information on victims yet. Moscow usually does not disclose the total number of Ukrainian drones deployed.
Similar statements by individual parties to the conflict cannot be directly independently verified in the conditions of war.
Source: www.tyden.cz
