During the morning rush hour on Thursday, Russian jets fired a salvo of missiles towards Ukraine. According to the officials, the air defense forces of Ukraine were able to shoot down the incoming salvos. Ukrainian citizens took cover in bunkers.
At the same time that individuals were making their way to work across the country, an air raid alert sounded. In Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, large throngs of people sought refuge in the city’s underground metro stations, with some individuals sitting on blankets and others on foldable chairs made of plastic.
Since October, Russia has been launching missile and drone strikes at the electrical grid, which has resulted in widespread blackouts and other forms of disruption during the winter. The most recent barrage of missile attacks occurred only a few hours after an attack by a drone throughout the night.
A reporter in the are, approximately 30 kilometers away from Kyiv, heard what appeared to be the sound of a missile flying overhead at a low altitude.
The spokesperson for the air force, Yuriy Ihnat, stated on national television that as many as six Tu-95 airplanes have taken off from the Murmansk region and unleashed missiles.
“We anticipate more than thirty missiles, some of which have in theory already started to show up in a few different areas. The air defenses are operating effectively,” it was stated by him, and he added that there was no information regarding drones.
He stated that it appeared as though the missiles were primarily aiming for the central region of Ukraine, but that the salvos could vary their trajectory.
Images shared through the Telegram app on mobile devices showed smoke billowing from an area in the Odesa region. According to other unsubstantiated sources, explosions were reportedly heard.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office, announced that the first Russian missiles had been intercepted and destroyed.
The air strikes happened just a few hours after the United States and Germany announced that they had reached an agreement about the delivery of combat tanks to Ukraine.
Iryna, who was in her 50s and worked as an accountant, told those taking refuge in the Universitet metro station that she was concerned about her husband. She was sitting on a bench among the masses.
“He was going to go to the post office in the morning, and now he is not answering his phone,” she claimed.
DTEK, the largest private energy producer in Ukraine, announced that it will be carrying out emergency power shutdowns in the country’s capital, Kyiv, as well as the territory surrounding it, as well as in the regions of Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk, due to the possibility of a missile attack.
Other power producers also reported that they were shutting down power in other sections of the country due to an emergency situation.
Overnight, the military announced that its anti-aircraft defenses had successfully destroyed all 24 of Russia’s drones that had been delivered.
There were no reports of any damage when fifteen of the drones were shot down in the area surrounding the capital city of Kyiv.