Thursday, December 29, 2022 | 8:15 a.m.
Ukraine was attacked by Russian troops from various directions with cruise missiles from strategic aircraft and ships, the Ukrainian Air Force Command reported Thursday.
“After the night attack of the kamikaze drones, the enemy is attacking Ukraine from various directions with air and sea cruise missiles from strategic aircraft and ships. In addition, there is a high activity of the tactical aviation of the occupiers”, indicated a message from the air force, reproduced by the Ukrinform news agency.
According to the air force statement, the Ukrainian army carried out defensive work on the entire territory of the country. Meanwhile, kyiv authorities said air defenses shot down 16 missiles targeting the Ukrainian capital.
“16 missiles were registered over kyiv. All 16 missiles were shot down,” the city’s military administration said on social media, adding that missile fragments damaged three private houses and a car. However, 40% of the population of the capital had been left without electricity.
Domestically, Ukraine’s air defense shot down 54 of the 69 missiles launched by Russia, the Ukrainian military reported. “According to preliminary data, 69 missiles were launched in total. Fifty-four enemy cruise missiles were shot down,” Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief General Valeriy Zaluzhny said. Presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak stated earlier in the day that more than 120 missiles had been fired.
Operational Command South reported in a Facebook post that Russia has placed surface and submarine missile launchers on combat alert with up to 20 “Kalibr” missiles ready to be launched.
“A missile threat has been declared in southern Ukraine. Strategic aviation activity has been recorded, ”he specified.
For his part, the head of Odessa’s military administration, Maxim Marchenko, said that Ukrainian forces shot down 21 missiles over the region. Missile fragments struck a residential building, but “fortunately there were no casualties,” he said in a Telegram message.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said there were numerous explosions in Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Explosions were also heard in the city of Lviv, near the border with Poland. There, the massive attack has left 90% of the city without power. “We are waiting for more information from the power engineers. Trams and trolleybuses do not run through the city. There may be interruptions in the water supply. We are switching to diesel generators at critical infrastructure facilities,” Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi reported on Telegram.
The governor of the province of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, assured that five missiles were shot down over the Black Sea. The North Ukrainian military command said that two of them were shot down over the Sumy region, located on the border with Russia, in the north-east of the country.
Fragments of downed Russian missiles damaged two private buildings in kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, according to the municipal administration. An industrial facility and a children’s playground in neighborhoods across the Dnieper River were also damaged.
Overnight, Russian forces attacked Kharkiv’s energy infrastructure with 13 Iranian “Shahed” drones, eleven of which were shot down by units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
Earlier this month, the United States agreed to give Ukraine a battery of Patriot missiles to bolster the country’s defense. Washington and other allies have also pledged to provide energy-related equipment to help resist attacks on their infrastructure.
Podolyak, Zelensky’s adviser, said Russia intended to “destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse.”
