On Thursday, Russia launched a wave of missile and self-detonating drone attacks on Ukraine.
An explosion occurred in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Thursday morning, while Ukraine was working to shoot down more than 15 Russian cruise missiles fired towards the capital, according to the authorities.
“The enemy fired more than 15 cruise missiles towards Kyiv. Thanks to the brilliant work of the Air Force, all air targets were shot down,” said the head of the military department in Kyiv, Sergei Popko.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said: “An explosion in Kyiv! Stay in the shelters!”
Vitaly Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, also announced via the Telegram messaging app that two Russian missiles had been detected over the region. He said: “The missiles are flying inside Ukrainian territory. At least two (headed) to the northwest through the Mykolaiv region.”
Ukraine launched Air raid alert In most parts of the country, authorities in various regions have warned of a possible missile attack. Officials asked residents to take cover.
Senior officials confirmed to Reuters that the air defense units had intercepted the Russian missiles.
Electricity company DTEK said it was carrying out emergency power cuts in the capital Kyiv and the rest of the Kiev region, as well as the Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk regions due to the threat of a missile attack.
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with missile and drone strikes since October, causing widespread power outages.
Earlier, an air raid alert was declared throughout Ukraine, particularly in the Dnipro, Petrovsk, Nikolaev, Poltava and Kharkov regions, as well as Zaporizhia and Kherson.
The Ukrainian army said that the air defenses shot down 24 Russian drones in the central regions of the country.
And only several hours after Washington and Berlin announced the dispatch of heavy tanks to Kyiv, Russia responded on the ground by bombing several Ukrainian sites. Ukrainian media reported that explosions were heard in the Cherkassy region, without mentioning more details about the damage and victims.
American or German tanks are legitimate Russian targets
In the context, the head of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, said that the American tank battalion will not help Ukraine seize Crimea… or change the course of the Russian special operation.
Slutsky added that any attempt to seize Crimea would receive a harsh response, he said.
He also indicated that all American or German tanks that were announced to be supplied to Kiev would become legitimate targets for the Russian army.
