KYIV, Ukraine — A swarm of drones and a volley of cruise missiles shook towns and cities across Ukraine on Thursday, the biggest attack in weeks and the latest in a spate of increasingly sophisticated aerial duels pitting Russia’s evolving tactics against its growing air arsenal of Ukraine defense weapons.
At dawn in Kiev, the capital, swollen contrails of missiles or air defense weapons hung in the air, and fragments of successful intercepts rained down on a playground and on private homes.
Russia, Ukraine’s defense ministry said in a statement, had “saved one of the most massive missile strikes since the start of the full-scale invasion for the last days of the year.” Ukraine’s air defenses were at times overwhelmed.
Iranian-made exploding drones, which Russia began acquiring last summer, were launched in a first wave, apparently to bog down air defenses before the cruise missiles hit, the Ukrainian air force said. It said its forces shot down 54 of 69 cruise missiles and also disabled drones.
The attack seemed likely to spark new calls from Ukrainian officials for more Western air defense systems as the growing arsenal of advanced weaponry of Kiev’s allies has failed to halt Moscow’s debilitating attacks on energy infrastructure, which have caused widespread power outages. have caused as the country faces frigid winter temperatures.
Following the attacks, Russia’s Defense Ministry released a photo on its official channel on social messaging app Telegram, showing a Kalibr cruise missile and a message: “Kalibrs will never run out.”
The White House condemned the attacks as part of Russia’s “barbaric war” and pledged to continue helping Ukraine defend itself. “This is yet another example of Putin’s brutality, attacking Ukraine’s critical infrastructure that provides light and heat to Ukrainian citizens,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
The new wave of strikes once again frustrated the work of crews trying to repair Ukraine’s power grid and raised the prospect that many Ukrainians would be without power during the New Year holidays.
For three months, Russia has launched salvos of cruise missiles and drones into Ukraine’s power grid in what military analysts say is a strategy to plunge the country into cold and darkness to lower morale.
The latest bombing killed two people and injured four others, including a 14-year-old girl who was hit by falling debris, authorities said.
Air defense weapons shot down four of six cruise missiles near the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, but the two that got through hit power plants, knocking out 90 percent of the city’s electricity, said the mayor, Andriy Sadovoy, in an interview.
“Putin is using the scenario to demoralize the Ukrainian people,” Sadovoi said.
But Lviv will hold out, he said. Diesel generators turned on at hospitals so operations could continue, he said, and the city is well stocked with firewood for emergency shelter heating.
Amid the barrage, two provinces — Dnipropetrovsk, in central Ukraine, and Odessa in the south — have preemptively turned off electricity to limit damage in the event of a short circuit in the power grid during a strike, a utility company said in a statement. . In Kiev, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strikes had left 40 percent of the capital without electricity.
Amid the chaos in the skies, as missiles and drones rumbled in and Ukraine fired air defense missiles in response, a Ukrainian S-300 interceptor missile flew into Belarus and was shot down by that country’s military, the Belarusian defense ministry said. Defence. There was no immediate information on casualties and no indication that Belarus, a close Russian ally, would treat the incident as anything other than an accident. In November, an errant Ukrainian air defense missile landed in Poland, killing two people and briefly sparking fears that the conflict could spread.
In Ukraine, the attack started with air raid sirens around 05:30. The Ukrainian army’s southern command said two Russian ships in the Black Sea had shown signs that they were preparing to fire missiles, raising the alarm.
As the sun rose, reports of strikes came from cities across the country and seven or eight explosions rang out in Kiev. One rattled windows and set off car alarms in the city center.
Leonid Fatkulin, 79, was still in bed on the first floor of his two-story brick house in a remote neighborhood when the rockets struck. “I was about to get up and shave when the explosion shook the house,” he said.
A natural gas pipeline caught fire.
“It’s not war,” said Mr. Fatkulin, standing next to the remains of his house, a coat thrown over his bathrobe. “It’s a crime against humanity.”
In Kiev, Mayor Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 16 missiles over the city, but falling debris injured three people, including the teenage girl.
The Ukrainian General Staff headquarters said in a statement that Russia had launched 13 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at energy infrastructure in Kharkiv, and air defense systems had shot down all but two. Another five Shahed drones were shot down around the city of Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine, the army said.
The cruise missiles followed and struck after Ukrainian air defense forces fired on the drones. The Russian military launched the missiles from different directions, firing from aircraft and ships at sea, the air force statement said.
But Ukraine can now fight back with a growing and increasingly sophisticated arsenal of air defense weapons.
The Pentagon has delivered the first two of eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, which are equipped with radar-guided missiles capable of hitting drones and cruise missiles. Germany delivered the first of four state-of-the-art Iris-T systems, which are so new they had never been used on the battlefield, while France and the Netherlands also pledged additional air defense missiles.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington last week and was presented with a battery of Patriot missiles, the United States’ most advanced missile defense system. But it will likely take several months for Ukrainian crews to be trained and deployed.
Ukraine’s air defense capability has been one of the surprising successes of the war, as improved coordination between early warning systems and the ground units responsible for shooting down missiles helped Kiev’s armed forces withstand a large percentage of Russian attacks. stop.
But Russia’s barrage is often so overwhelming — about 75 missiles are launched in a typical barrage, Ukraine’s military intelligence has said — that plenty more get through. And Russia seems to have more weapons in its stockpile, partly due to the growing supply of exploding drones from Iran.
And even successful shootings carry risks as the twisted, silvery metallic debris rains down on cities.
On Thursday, two fragments landed on a playground in the Pechersk district of Kiev.
“It was a first for us that it was so close,” says Galina Khomina, a graphic designer who pushed her 3-year-old daughter Nastya on a swing in the playground a few hours after the strikes. She said that despite the near miss, she couldn’t stay home for fear.
“We hope it will come to an end soon,” Ms Khomina said. “We are used to it and we are not afraid. Life goes on. You only have one life.”
Reporting contributed by Oleksandr Chubko, Carly Olson, Shashank Bengali, Ivan Nechepurenko and Eric Schmitt.