Russia launches another massive missile strike against Ukraine
Air-strike alerts were active throughout Ukraine on Thursday morning. Nataliya Gumenyuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Operations Command South, reported that Russian strategic aviation was active in the direction of the Caspian, and that three Russian missile carriers had embarked into the Black Sea.
Anton Herashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, reported on cruise missile launches from Volgodonsk (a city in the Rostov region of Russia) and from the Caspian Sea region. Vitaliy Kim, head of the Mykolayiv wartime administration, wrote on Telegram about five missiles striking the area.
Air Force Press Secretary Yuriy Ignat has acknowledged missile launches from six Russian Tu-95 bombers.
Around 8:30 a.m. local time, Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak wrote, on Telegram, that the first Russian missiles had been shot down. As the air-defense systems continued to work, the Ukrainian media registered explosions in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Mykolayiv, Zhytomyr, and Vinnytsia regions. Local governors urged residents to stay in shelters and not to post photos or videos of the explosions.
More than 15 missiles were launched towards Kyiv, according to the city’s military administration. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko reported explosions in the Dniprovskyi district. In the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv, crashing missile remnants killed one person and injured two more. Missile hits were documented in the Vinnytsia region. In the Odesa region, two energy facilities were damaged.
Emergency blackouts were effected in the Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. In Kyiv, above-ground subway stations stopped operating.
On the night of January 26, Russia launched 24 Iranian “suicide drones” into Ukraine, as reported by the Ukrainian Air Command. According to an official statement, all of them were destroyed.
Russia’s last series of massive missile strikes on Ukraine took place on January 14. On that day, a Russian missile struck a nine-story apartment building in Dnipro, killing 45 civilians.