Ukraine has again endured a night of heavy bombardment, with what was reportedly over 30 missiles and drones targeting cities across the country in an air raid of “unprecedented” intensity.
“A series of air attacks on Kyiv, unprecedented in their power, intensity and variety” took place overnight into Thursday morning a spokesman for the city of Kyivv said, with the Ukrainian government saying it had successfully shot down 29 Kalibir missiles, two suicide attack drones, and two reconnaissance drones.
The missiles were launched, it was claimed, from Russian land installations, from Russian aircraft, and from Russian warships in the Black Sea. All missiles heading to Kyiv itself were destroyed, but one missile nationwide is reported to have got through, and one person is reported killed in a missile attack in Kostiantynivka, near Donetsk. Two wounded have been reported nationwide.
KYIV, UKRAINE – MAY 18: A man in military uniform rides on a scooter past a warning tape that surrounds a piece of an intercepted Russian missile on May 18, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Authorities said all incoming missiles in Kyiv had been destroyed, but intercepted rockets caused some damage. Other cities were also hit by aerial attacks, including Odessa, where one person was killed and two others were wounded. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/Getty Images)
The raid was not without consequence for Kyiv, falling wreckage from missiles is reported to have rained down on several city districts, damaging parked cars, and started a garage fire in the Darnytsky neighbourhood.
After several quiet relatively weeks — for a warzone — in Ukraine, air raids against its cities have returned with intensity this month, with this morning’s nationwide attack being the ninth of its kind in May. The attacks appear to be increasing in size: Tuesday’s 18-missile raid on Kyiv was considered major, and today’s 30-missile attack has been called “unprecedented”.
The Tuesday raid in particular grabbed headlines worldwide as it came at the centre of a tousle between Russia and the United States over the qualities and capabilities of their respective missile programmes. Russia has previously claimed their Kinzhal hypersonic missiles are “undefeatable”, but Ukraine claims to have shot down six of them using a U.S. Patriot defence system, and some Western analysis claims they aren’t even truly hypersonic anyway.
Russia claimed their own success in turn, stating they had successfully hit a Patriot battery in that barrage. While this was taken by some to be a hollow deflection from a piece of very bad news at the time, the United States appears to have subsequently quietly admitted one of its systems was indeed damaged during the barrage.