Ukraine downs dozens of cruise missiles, drones in Russia’s massive attack

Russia launched a massive air attack on Ukraine overnight on Wednesday with dozens of cruise missiles and kamikaze drones, on a scale not seen since late May, the Ukrainian military said.

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28 air-launched X-101 / X-555 / X-55 missiles were fired from Russia’s eleven Tu-95MS strategic aircraft, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi posted on social media.

In addition, Russia launched 16 Shahed-136 / 131 strike UAVs from the southern and northern directions.

"Air defences were deployed along the route of the missiles and drones in a number of Ukrainian regions," the Ukrainian Air Force Command said in a statement.

Anti-aircraft missile troops, fighter aircraft, mobile fire groups and other means of destruction were involved in repelling the air attack, it added.

All cruise missiles and 15 out of 16 kamikaze drones were taken down over the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions.

Since late May, when Russia fired around 40 cruise missiles and 35 kamikaze drones, there have been no air attacks on such a scale until now.

Russia has been launching regular air attacks against Ukraine since last October, with the apparent aim of depleting Kyiv’s air defences.

So far, Ukraine has repelled most of the attacks, taking down nearly all attack drones and cruise missiles.