Air raid ‘like Star Wars movie’
VLADIMIR Putin yesterday lashed out again, as Russian forces launched an “exceptionally” heavy air attack on Kyiv – the eighth this month.
One resident of Ukraine’s capital compared the intensity of the nighttime assault to a StarWars film.
Video footage posted on social media appeared to show air defence systems shooting down a number of missiles and drones over the city.
But at least three people were injured in the attack, which came a day after Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Britain to discuss military aid.
A woman named only as Kseniia said: “It was really scary and it was heavy. I [felt] it was something like [being] inside an action game, a really scary one, something like, I don’t know, like Star Wars. You really don’t want to witness this.
Assault
“I was asleep in my bed with my husband when we heard a series of very loud explosions right above our building.”
But she added: “It’s such a relief to know Kyiv is under such a strong defence right now.”
Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, said rocket debris from the “extensive raid” had fallen on a number of central districts as missiles targeted the capital for two hours.
Valerii Zaluzhny, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, said 18 air, sea and land-based missiles had been used, claiming that all had been shot down.
An unknown number of drones were also used.
Gen Zaluzhny said the raid included nine Kalibr cruise missiles, which were launched from ships in the Black Sea, and three land-based missiles.
He added that Kyiv also destroyed at least six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which are capable of reaching speeds of more than 7,000mph. Russia has claimed in the past that these could not be destroyed by air defence systems. Serhiy Popko, head of the Ukrainian capital’s military administration, described the barrage as being the “maximum number of attack missiles in the shortest period of time”.
He added: “According to preliminary information, the vast majority of enemy targets in the airspace of Kyiv were detected and destroyed.”
The Solomyanskyi district, which includes the international airport, is reported to have been the hardest hit.
Russian forces later claimed to have destroyed a US Patriot Missile defence system protecting the Ukrainian capital.
Russian Telegram channel Military Informer claimed a sequence of footage showed a US-supplied SAM system exhaust its supply of missiles in dealing with the barrage of missiles and drones.
Then, according to the channel, an explosion was seen at the site of the Patriot system, which was “likely destroyed”.
The attacks came amid fury in Moscow over Britain’s decision, announced on Monday, to supply long-range missiles and drones to Kyiv although it said it would not change the conflict’s course.