Air defense downs 14 of 19 missiles which Russia hasn't fired in 79 days
Illustrative photo (Getty Images)
Ukrainian air defenses managed to shoot down 5 out of 7 kamikaze drones and 14 out of 19 missiles launched by Russia into Ukraine on the night of December 8. This missile launch marked the first such attack by the adversary in the last 79 days, according to Colonel Yurii Ihnat, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force Command.
Combat reconnaissance
According to the spokesperson, the enemy conducted a "combat reconnaissance" in the evening, deploying 7 drones, five of which were successfully intercepted.
"They flew into the Dnipropetrovsk region, five of them were shot down. Same in the Kharkiv region, the adversary launched 6 anti-aircraft guided S-300 missiles from the Belgorod region," he revealed.
Missile attack
Ihnat also added that in the early morning, there were launches of Kh-101 and Kh-55 missiles from a total of 9 strategic aviation aircraft Tu-95.
"The aircraft split into several groups and launched cruise missiles. Preliminarily, 19 missiles were launched, and we have a good result in air defense – 14 cruise missiles downed. They were destroyed in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions," Ihnat said.
The spokesperson added that they headed towards Dnipro, and some missiles targeted Kyiv from there, while others struck infrastructure objects in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't intercept all of them," he acknowledged.
Shelling of Ukraine
Russian forces attacked Ukraine with Shahed drones from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk region and S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles from the Belgorod region of Russia on the night of December 8. Ukrainian air defenses successfully destroyed 5 enemy attack UAVs. Moreover, occupiers struck Kharkiv 6 times overnight, reporteddly hitting the Kholodnohirskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts of the city.
In the morning, Russia launched missiles from strategic aviation Tu-95. The occupiers had not attacked Ukraine with such missiles for over two months. All missiles bound for Kyiv were successfully intercepted. However, there is one fatality and several injuries due to missile strikes in the Pavlograd district of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
