On Thursday, Russia launched a massive aerial attack on Ukraine. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired some 258 drones toward cities, ports and industrial sites.
They estimated that one-third of the drones were jet-powered, and that Russia also used a pair of Oniks ship-killers, Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles, and Banderol cruise missiles.
Iskander-M. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Ukrainian forces said they shot down or suppressed 222 drones, seven ballistic missiles, three Banderols and one Oniks missile.
“Overnight, Russia carried out a massive strike against Ukraine, targeting ports, grain storage, energy, industry and other infrastructure,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, adding that ballistic and hypersonic missiles were used.
Critical Ukrainian Sites Struck, Russia Claims
The hours-long attack carried on throughout the night, even disrupting many morning commutes in the Ukrainian capital.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it hit a flurry of key Ukrainian sites including both the Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia steelworks, a central Poltava oil refinery, and various logistics centers near Kyiv. They also claimed to have struck a trio of ports in the Odesa region.
The Associated Press reported that at least two people were killed and 14 wounded across Ukraine, while residential buildings, schools and medical facilities were among the structures hit. One person was killed in an attack on a shopping center in Kharkiv.
In Odesa, regional governor Oleh Kiper said the attack lasted more than seven hours. “Throughout the night, Russians targeted the region’s civil infrastructure with missiles and drones,” he said. A 16-story residential building, two educational institutions, a house, and a grain elevator were damaged.
Russia also hit some of Ukraine’s biggest private companies. A distribution center belonging to electronics retailer COMFY was damaged, while warehouses belonging to a major toy company and confectionery producer Roshen were also destroyed.
Roshen said employees avoided injury by taking shelter during the alert, but warned that “temporary supply disruptions for certain goods are possible” following the destruction of its facilities near Kyiv.
Ukraine’s Dwindling Interceptors
Russia is increasingly combining ballistic missiles with faster, jet-powered drones, adding to the strain on Ukraine’s air defenses.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that Ukraine had received a small batch of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors.
Thursday’s interception of seven ballistic missiles represented a sharp improvement from a major Russian strike on Kyiv last week, when Ukraine failed to shoot down any ballistic missiles amid a shortage of Patriot ammunition.
“Russia continues to invest in missiles and in expanding its war, and that means more countermeasures are needed,” Zelenskyy said Thursday, calling for additional ballistic-missile defense packages purchased from the United States.
Naturally, anxieties about attacks on energy infrastructure are growing as the cold winter season approaches.
Four Russian glide bombs struck the Kherson Combined Heat and Power Plant overnight, according to state energy company Naftogaz, destroying the remaining heat and power-generating equipment.
“The Russians struck an exclusively civilian facility that supplies heat to a significant part of Kherson’s residential buildings,” acting Naftogaz CEO Serhii Fedorenko said.
Ukraine Targets Russian Firms Linked to Invasion
The Wall Street Journal reported that Kyiv’s campaign has expanded beyond Russian refineries and weapons factories to warehouses operated by e-commerce giants Wildberries and Ozon.
A Ukrainian drone strike this week caused a major fire at a Lukoil refinery near Nizhny Novgorod, while another destroyed a Wildberries warehouse in Russia’s Tambov region.
Roughly 20 of the firm’s facilities have been attacked since July, with Ukrainian officials accusing the firm’s logistics network of selling military and dual-use equipment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has explicitly threatened to broaden Moscow’s attacks in response.
“The Kyiv regime set out to damage our economy,” Putin said last week. “It opened this Pandora’s box itself.”
Franz-Stefan Gady, a military analyst, told the WSJ that Moscow appears to be relying on the theory that “pain plus exhaustion produces political capitulation.” History, he added, suggests instead that “sustained air attack hardens societies rather than breaking them.”
Six Drones Enter Moldovan Airspace
Ukraine’s neighbors have faced various intrusions. Six Russian drones entered nearby Moldova during Thursday’s barrage, with one found on Moldovan territory. President Maia Sandu said she “strongly condemn[ed] this intimidation.”
Moscow also threatened Britain this week, after London agreed to share classified technology that would allow Ukraine eventually to manufacture Storm Shadow cruise missiles domestically.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that British military targets “in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted” in response to Ukrainian strikes using weapons manufactured in the United Kingdom.
About the Author: Georgia Gilholy
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education.
