RUSSIA LAUNCHES SPRING OFFENSIVE
» Barrage of cruise missiles » Ground assault now feared
RUSSIA has stepped up its war on Ukraine with strategic bombers, drones and rockets attacking civilian targets across the country.
Moscow’s latest military push was brewing for days and has appeared to pick up pace ahead of the oneyear anniversary of the invasion, on February 24.
Its forces have launched 71 cruise missiles, 35 S-300 missiles and seven Shahed drones since late Thursday, Ukraine’s military chief Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.
Ukrainian forces said they downed 61 cruise missiles and five drones. The missiles were believed to have been launched by Vladimir Putin’s Tu-95 strategic bombers and navy ships in the Black Sea.
The S-300s were launched from the Belgorod region just inside Russia and the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Moscow had once again targeted the power supply in “another attempt to destroy the Ukrainian energy system and deprive Ukrainians”. He added: “We have sustained damage to high-voltage infrastructure and generation in the western, central and eastern regions, which may cause power outages.”
The barrage went further than usual, by taking aim at the capital Kyiv and Lviv, near the country’s western border with Poland.
Explosions were heard as far west as Ivano-Frankivsk. Air raid sirens went off across much of the country.
The bombardments could be an effort by Russia to soften up Ukraine’s defences ahead of a ground assault, which Kyiv believes Moscow is planning in the east. Ukraine’s air force said the S-300 missiles were aimed at the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia provinces.
The Khmelnytskyi province in western Ukraine was also attacked with Shahed drones, according to governor Serhii Hamalii. Russia has in the past used Iran’s Shahed drones to strike infrastructure and sow fear. They are known as suicide drones because they nosedive and explode. The onslaught lent a sense of urgency to Ukraine’s pleas for more Western support. On a two-day trip to Europe this week, President Zelensky pressed allies including the UK to grant Kyiv more military aid, including fighter jets.