‘Unprecedented’ missile barrage repelled by Kyiv
Ukraine says it intercepted nearly all of a barrage of Russian missiles overnight on Wednesday, the latest in an ‘unprecedented’ wave of aerial attacks on Kyiv.
Ukraine says it intercepted nearly all of a barrage of Russian missiles overnight on Wednesday, the latest in an “unprecedented” wave of aerial attacks on the capital Kyiv.
The defence ministry said Russian forces had launched 30 cruise missiles from land, sea and air, targeting several regions and killing one person in the southern port of Odesa and another in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
The military said its air defence units had destroyed 29 of the cruise missiles and shot down four drones.
Russian strikes on Kyiv have reached an intensity not seen since a wave of attacks started last northern autumn.
Thursday’s assault on Kyiv follows other recent barrages in which Ukraine claimed to have downed several of Russia’s much-vaunted hypersonic Kinzhal missiles.
Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said the most recent barrage included six Kalibr missiles and two Iskander-K missiles.
The US also confirmed that one of its Patriot air defence systems supplied to Kyiv had been damaged, following claims by Russia that its forces had destroyed one of the advanced systems.
In the southern port city of Odesa, one person was killed and two were wounded after a missile hit industrial infrastructure, the military said.
One person died and two more were wounded as a result of a missile strike in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
Meanwhile, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, said the eastern city of Bakhmut was unlikely to fall to Russian forces in the coming days.
Wagner has led the grinding, months-long assault on Bakhmut, which has experienced the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
“Bakhmut is unlikely to be completely taken tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” Mr Prigozhin wrote on Telegram, reporting heavy fighting in the southwestern suburbs of the city. “Bakhmut has not yet been taken. There is a suburb called ‘samolet’. It is an impregnable fortress formed from a range of apartment blocks, located in the southwest of Bakhmut. The toughest battles are going on there right now.”
Ukraine said earlier this week that its forces had retaken 20sq km in the north and south of the outskirts of Bakhmut but said Russian forces were still advancing.
The battle for the city in the Donbas region is the bloodiest and longest since the Russian invasion.
AFP
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