Falling missile particles injured at the least three folks in Kyiv and induced harm to the town’s zoo and different central neighborhoods, metropolis officers mentioned.
The strikes, which could possibly be heard for over 20 minutes within the capital, had been among the many most intense in months. The assault “was exceptional in its density — the maximum number of missile attacks in the shortest period of time,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s metropolis navy administration, wrote on Telegram.
Ukrainian officers claimed an ideal interception fee, and credited Western-donated Patriot air protection programs with thwarting assaults by essentially the most subtle Russian weapons. Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian air pressure, mentioned Russia expended thousands and thousands of {dollars} in high-end missiles in a failed try to hit targets within the capital area.
“The enemy is attempting to achieve its goals,” Ihnat mentioned. “Right now it had the goal of striking certain installations in the region of the capital. These could be next to the city, or in the city — we can’t know what the enemy had in mind, because we destroyed everything.”
Ihnat mentioned the Russians fired from quite a few places. “They attacked with missiles from various bases: air, ground, sea,” he mentioned. Russia additionally attacked the capital in a single day with drones, Ihnat and different officers mentioned.
The drone assaults, particularly, appear be a part of an ongoing effort by Moscow to check Ukraine’s newly equipped Western air protection programs, maybe trying to find vulnerabilities or aiming to deplete Kyiv’s missile shares forward of extra intense floor preventing that’s anticipated within the coming weeks.
Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow on the Washington-based Stimson Center, mentioned that whereas the West has been capable of handle a scarcity in missiles in Ukraine’s ageing Russian-made air defenses by sending its personal programs, Western air protection programs even have provide limitations.
“There are simply not many systems and missiles on hand to send to Ukraine, and the defense industry cannot surge fast enough to meet demand,” Grieco mentioned, noting that solely two Patriot programs have been equipped to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s prime navy commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, wrote Tuesday on Telegram that the drones included each Iranian-made Shahed assault drones and Orlan-10 reconnaissance drones.
“All are destroyed!” Zaluzhny wrote.
Ukraine additionally intercepted 9 Kalibr cruise missiles launched from ships within the Black Sea and three Iskander land-based missiles, the navy mentioned. Roughly an hour after air alarms sounded for the primary spherical of assaults, they blared once more as Ukraine reported a second spherical, this time involving unmanned aerial objects.
Debris from the missiles landed within the central Solomyansky district, injuring three and setting a nonresidential constructing and several other automobiles on hearth.
Kyiv Zoo was additionally struck by falling particles, although no animals had been reported damage. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram {that a} fragment of 1 rocket hit a tree however that the branches had been now being cleared, and the zoo opened as traditional at 10 a.m.
Since Russia resumed near-daily strikes on the capital in late April, Ukraine’s bolstered air defenses, together with the Patriot programs, have spared Kyiv from harm.
This success has created a way of security, which can be illusory. On Monday night, few folks within the metropolis’s packed bars and eating places reacted when an air raid alarm sounded round 8 p.m. That alarm ended swiftly, with no studies of an tried strike.
Earlier this month, Ukraine mentioned it used the Patriot system to shoot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal, or Dagger, missile over Kyiv — exhibiting that it may take down certainly one of Russia’s most feared, but additionally costliest, weapons.
During a current interview with The Washington Post, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov mentioned Russia has stopped making an attempt to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and is now making an attempt to remove its air protection programs. That has prompted Ukrainian officers to insist that they want stronger aviation capabilities, together with F-16 fighter jets and longer-range missiles.
“We need 40 Patriots, 40 IRIS-T, 40 NASAMS,” Reznikov mentioned, referring to the U.S.-made system and two different surface-to-air missile programs.
