Ukraine launches “largest” offensive of war to date, deploying more than 10 state-of-the-art Western-supplied cruise missiles and more than 100 drones to attack energy, chemical and weapons facilities It was announced that the missile had been fired at a target deep in Russia.
Fires were reported at Russian chemical and energy plants between Monday and Tuesday this week, and the Kremlin claimed to have shot down waves of missiles and drones. Russia has vowed to retaliate for the attack, which it said included eight British-made Storm Shadow Bunker Buster cruise missiles and six American-made ATACMS cruise missiles.
The Kremlin claims that they successfully shot down all these missiles, 12 over Bryansk and two more Storm Shadow over the Black Sea. Russia also claims to have shot down dozens of drones over the region surrounding Moscow. “The actions of the Kiev regime, supported by Western leaders, will provoke retaliation,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, vowing retaliation.
Indeed, air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Wednesday morning, and state media reported Russian cruise and ballistic missile launches. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said more than 40 missiles and 70 drones were fired in the attack by Russian forces. The president said the target of the attack was Ukraine's energy infrastructure, saying, “It's another large-scale Russian attack. We're in the middle of winter, but the goal for Russia remains the same: our energy infrastructure. Among the objectives were gas and energy facilities to maintain the normal life of the people.”
Russia claimed it had shot down all weapons fired by Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, but there were “no casualties or destruction.” But fires were reported at several key facilities, and Ukrainian intelligence claimed the attack was some 1,100 miles across the Ukrainian-Russian border and well beyond Moscow. It claimed to have struck in what it called the “most extensive” attack of the war.
The news agency Reuters claimed that Ukrainian intelligence officials, who often coordinate such long-range attacks, claimed the attack on Russia's main air base Engels. It is home to some of Russia's air and nuclear forces, and the latest attack is said to have hit an ammunition depot for “guided bombs and missiles.” A chemical factory in the Tula region south of Moscow, a gas storage tank in the Tatarstan region east of Moscow, a chemical plant in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, and an oil refinery along the Volga River are also said to have been attacked. .
Kyiv Published satellite photo To assert the effectiveness of the strike.
Ukraine's use of Western-supplied cruise missiles to strike deep into Russian territory has been a key point of contention for Western backers in the late stages of the conflict, with leaders insisting that Kiev crosses its border. This is because he expressed concern about allowing the use of weapons in the United States. escalate. After months of obstruction, President Joe Biden's U.S. government suddenly and unexpectedly signed a weapons ban shortly after the national election.
Russia's reaction to the first use of the weapon initially drew harsh words from the Kremlin, followed by a test of what Moscow called a new experimental ballistic missile. The missile was fired at a Ukrainian city, but it did not carry a nuclear or even conventional warhead, and the damage was caused solely by the kinetic energy of the missile casing as it fell to the ground at great speed.
Putin claimed that other recent new weapons also boasted invulnerability, and that this weapon resembled a new, unstoppable Russian threat, even if it later turned out to be overused. .
