The nights follow one another and look alike in Ukraine. The country has once again been the target of air attacks led by Russia. The tenth of magnitude this month. The day before, the authorities had estimated that the repeated bombardments carried out since the beginning of May were “unprecedented in their power, intensity and variety”.
Which regions are affected?
Air alert sirens sounded across Ukraine overnight from Thursday to Friday. The whole territory has been placed on alert during the night. Military and media officials reported explosions in several areas: in the west, in Lviv, Volyn and Rivne; in the North in kyiv and Chernihiv; in the south in Mykolaiv and Kherson; and in the east in Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk.
“Air defense is at work in Kyiv’s airspace. Stay in the shelters until it’s all over! ” in particular urged on Telegram the head of the civil and military administration of the capital, Serhiï Popko. His counterpart in the Kryvyi Rih region (south), Oleksandr Vilkul, made a similar call and reported “explosions”.
In detail, the military authorities announced, during the night, the risk of strikes by Kinjal hypersonic missiles and drone attacks in the Kyiv and central regions of the country. The alerts were lifted in most regions this Friday morning.
What are the damages?
Although explosions have been heard, there is, for the time being, no official report of deaths or injuries.
For their part, the pro-Russian authorities installed in the Donetsk region (annexed by Moscow since last September) claimed that Ukrainian missiles had been fired at the night on the eponymous city. Information relayed by the Russian agency T but which could not be verified independently.
Downed drones
This Friday morning, the spokesman for the air force command, Yuriy Ihnat, revealed that “three missiles launched from the Black Sea and 16 drones” had been shot down, out of the 28 missiles launched overnight. “Not all targets were hit,” he said.
Several officials made it known during the night that anti-aircraft operations had taken place. “All the targets sent over kyiv were destroyed by our anti-aircraft defense,” said Serhiï Popko in particular on Telegram.
An “unprecedented” situation
Already the day before, the country had been hit by a major series of air attacks. It was the “ninth in a row” in kyiv since the beginning of May, the authorities had said.
The civil and military administration of the capital judged that the Russian attacks carried out since the beginning of May were “unprecedented in their power, intensity and variety”. In addition to cruise missiles launched from bombers, Russia has sent in recent days, according to the Ukrainians, drones and hypersonic missiles.