At least nine killed in new series of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine

At least nine civilians were killed early on Thursday in a new series of Russian missile attacks in numerous places in ten Ukrainian regions. Power went out in many places across the country. The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was also shut down for several hours.

According to the Ukrainian air force, the Russians fired at least 81 missiles and drones, including at civilian targets in and around the capital Kyiv, where the air raid siren sounded for seven hours, but also in Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson, Lviv and Dnipro. Ukraine claims to have shot down 34 missiles and four drones. More than forty missiles did hit a target, a much higher ratio than has been usual in recent months.

In the attacks, according to Kyiv, Russia used, among other things, six hypersonic kinzhal missiles, a new type of missile that according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies could reach a speed of 12,350 kilometers per hour, Mach 10. Unlike cruise missiles, the kinzjal (‘dagger’) is barely interceptable by the Ukrainian missile defense systems.

Retaliation

It was the first massive Russian air strike since mid-February. According to Moscow, it was in retaliation for an incident last week in Russia’s Bryansk region in which, according to Russian news agencies, “Ukrainian saboteurs carried out terrorist attacks” on a number of villages near the border with Ukraine. Kyiv denied the attacks and called the Russian accusations “a classic deliberate provocation”.

The Russian defense ministry said the targets on Thursday included drone bases and ammunition production sites and disrupted the transportation of foreign weapons to the Ukrainian army.

It is believed that the number of Russian missile strikes decreased because stocks of missiles and drones have dwindled

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday expressed his disgust at the Russian attacks, which he said were purely aimed at civilian targets. “The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them. They will not shirk their responsibility for everything they have done.”

Moscow began a series of deadly rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities in the fall of last year, aiming to knock out the country’s critical infrastructure. During the winter, millions of Ukrainians were regularly without electricity, heating and water. It is suspected that the number of Russian missile attacks has continued to decrease in recent months because stocks of missiles and drones have dwindled.

Read also: Ukraine continues to defend Bachmut ‘to exhaust Russians’

Battle for Bachmut

Along the front line in the east, Russian and Ukrainian troops are still fighting a bloody battle for Bachmut, in the heart of the Donbas. The virtually destroyed mining town, which has been besieged by the Russians since last summer, is surrounded on three sides by troops of the Wagner Group.

It seems only a matter of time before the Ukrainian army withdraws from the city. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed on Wednesday that his mercenary army has taken over the entire east of the city, up to the Bachmutka River that bisects the city. The Russians would according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) hold about half of Bachmoet. Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, said Wednesday that the city “may fall in the days to come.”

For the further course of the war, at least in the short term, the big question is how far the Russian troops can push once they have captured Bachmut. Western military experts are skeptical about the current strength of the Russian army. US intelligence director Avril Haines said this week in the Senate Intelligence Committee that the Russians in Ukraine have suffered such heavy losses that they no longer have the ammunition or the manpower to carry out major offensives this year. “In short, we do not foresee that the Russian army will recover enough this year to make major territorial gains.”