Russia unleashes missile barrage across Ukraine
Moscow switches focus of attacks from Black Sea ports to inland targets including military airfield
Explosions were reported in cities across Ukraine early on Wednesday evening as Russia carried out a missile barrage more than a week into an air strike campaign that has until now targeted ports along the Black Sea coast.
“Sounds of explosions . . . air defences are at work,” reported the administration of Khmelnytsky region, west of the capital Kyiv. Explosions were also reported in at least several other regions, including Zhytomyr, also west of the capital, Sumy in the north-east and Kirovohrad to the south.
“It turned out to be a difficult day, but thanks to the co-ordinated actions of all the defenders of the sky, we repelled this attack!” Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of Ukraine’s air force, said on social media: “36 enemy cruise missiles were destroyed.”
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening video address to the nation that “the absolute majority” of missiles fired “were shot down”.
“There are several hits, and there are falling fragments of missiles. But it is very important that the audacity of this attack was destroyed,” Zelenskyy added.
A claim that Starokostiantyniv air base, in the Khmelnytsky region of western Ukraine, was hit could not be independently verified because Ukraine does not confirm successful Russian strikes on military targets.
But Col Yuriy Ignat, the air force’s spokesperson, confirmed in an appearance on Ukrainian state television that the air base had been a main target on Wednesday.
Ignat said some of the cruise missiles had headed into Ukraine from the east and went south, only to turn north-west towards Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine. Then, he added, they did a “180-degree turn”, flying back to the east towards the air base.
The strikes came as air raid sirens went off nationwide for a second time during the day.
“The firing of cruise missiles was recorded from 12 TU-95MS [bombers] in the Caspian Sea region,” Ukraine’s air force command said in a statement that warned of the incoming strikes.
Minutes later the air force added that “high-speed missiles from the north” had also been fired and urged citizens across the country to “take cover” in bomb shelters.
Ukraine’s air force said two cruise missiles fired earlier on Wednesday had been intercepted over the Vinnytsia region, south-west of Kyiv.