Ukraine-Russia War: Russia launched its most extensive aerial attack on Ukrainian targets since the beginning of the war 22 months ago, officials reported on Friday. The attack included 122 missiles and 36 unmanned aircraft, resulting in civilian casualties according to Ukraine and images and videos that have come to light.
‘We haven’t seen so many red dots on our screens for a long time,’ revealed Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, giving a chilling picture of the attack. He revealed that the Russian forces started the attack with a wave of GERAN 2/SHAHED 136 suicide drones, followed quickly by a barrage of missile attacks with Russia using almost every available type of missile. Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, described it in an official Telegram channel statement as ‘the most massive air attack’ since Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Russians specifically used Kh-32, Kh-101, Kh-555, Kh-22, Kh-55, Kh-47M2, Kh-59, Kh-31P missiles launched against Ukrainian cities with the help of fighter jets and bombers. S-300 and S-400 missiles were also fired in a ballistic missile role, in addition to the Kamikaze UAV Shahed-136/131 or in Russian Service Geran 2.
Despite the huge scale of the attack, according to Zaluzhnyi, the Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ukrainian aviation shot down 87 of the missiles and 27 of the Shahed-type drones during the attack.
Prior to this, the largest recorded attack by Russia occurred in November 2022, with 96 missiles launched against Ukraine. However, this latest attack surpasses all previous attacks in both scale and impact and shows that contrary to exaggerations, Russia has the capability to produce missiles to at least some extent replenish its shortages.
This attack is speculated to be in response to the Ukrainian strike with SCALP EG that sank a Russian ROPUCHA-class landing ship in the port of Feodosia in Crimea.
