The Russian military once again carried out a series of missile assaults on different parts of Ukraine on Friday morning, which resulted in a power outage for approximately half of the consumers in that nation. Since October, the Russian military has launched eight previous large-scale attacks against the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, making this the ninth such attack.
Yuri Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, stated on Saturday that the Russians carried out the kamikaze drone strike on Thursday to determine the positions of Ukrainian air defences in preparation for the huge missile attack that took place on Friday.
“This is done, e.g. to determine where the Shaheds (Iranian drones Shahed 136) were shot down, where the Ukrainian air defence is operating. Because at night (and then the drone attack was carried out ), anti-aircraft missile systems are primarily used. They mark their location and then correct the plans of their attacks using rockets,” Ihnat told Ukrainian TV. The Ukrinform agency quoted him.
At the beginning of this month, the Ukrainian military made allegations that Russia is attacking the country’s air defences with nuclear-capable missiles that are armed with non-explosive warheads. Mykola Danyliuk, a military official, displayed what he claimed to be pieces of Soviet-made Kh-55 cruise missiles that are intended for nuclear use. Shards of the missiles supported Danyliuk’s claims. He stated that they are being used to “exhaust the air-defence system of our country”.
Massive Rocket Attack
Commenting on Friday’s missile attack, Ihnat said the Russians used “all available weapons except the Shahed.” These rockets were launched from ships, as well as the ground and the air. During the devastating barrage, the Russians launched approximately 70 missiles, most of which were directed against installations related to energy infrastructure.
On Friday, Ihnat reported that “Tu-95 aircraft fired Ch-535 and Kh-101 missiles, Kalibers were also launched from the Black Sea, and there were launches of S-300 missiles. The movement of Russian MiG-31K aircraft armed with Kinzhal missiles and Su-35 fighters armed with Kh-59 missiles was also reported by Ukrainian services. Both of these types of aircraft are armed with Russian-made missiles.
The Russians launched their attack early Thursday morning using drones of the Shahed-136 variety. Their objective was to take Kyiv. After some time passed, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that all thirteen kamikaze drones had been destroyed.
Ukrainian Air Defence destroyed most of the missiles
The latest estimations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces indicate that more than 76 missiles were launched across the country during this specific instance, the vast majority of which were cruise missiles. According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, air defence systems successfully downed sixty missiles throughout the conflict.
“According to preliminary data, this morning, the enemy fired 76 missiles at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure from the Caspian and Black Seas, including 72 cruise missiles (Kh-101, Kalibr, Kh-22) and four guided aircraft (Kh-59). /X-31P),” the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny wrote on his Telegram channel.
During its Friday briefing on the strikes, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not provide detailed information. It stated only that “a warehouse of missile and artillery weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed in Kharkiv.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address that Russia would have enough missiles for several more of the same massive strikes, but “this still will not change the balance of power in this war.”
According to the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, German Galushchenko (also known as Herman Valeriiovych Halushchenko), as a result of the attack, about nine power plants were damaged, and the supply of energy to consumers in the country was cut by half.
“We do not have the ability to supply electricity to 50% of consumers. Now, this situation is being corrected, a corresponding load of nuclear generation is already underway, and I hope that in the near future, we will be able to stabilize the situation as much as possible. But you need to understand that there will be emergency shutdowns today,” he said.
