Russia launched a new, exceptionally heavy airstrike on Kiev on Tuesday, using drones, cruise ships and possibly ballistic missiles, according to local authorities, in the eighth airstrike this month.
“It was exceptional in its density – the maximum number of offensive missiles in the shortest period of time,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kiev city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s armed forces accused Russia today, Tuesday, of launching a “massive attack” on the country using “various types of missiles,” while confirming that nearly 20 shells fired by the Russian army were intercepted by its air defense systems. .
“During May 16, the enemy again launched a massive attack on Ukraine using various types of missiles,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army stated through its account on the social networking site Facebook, before specifying that during Monday, Russian forces carried out a massive offensive. 48 air strikes.
On Tuesday, Ukraine claimed to have shot down six Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in a new night attack on Kiev.
“Another incredible success of the Ukrainian Air Force! Last night the sky defenders shot down six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and 12 more,” Defense Minister Oleksey Reznikov said on Twitter.
At night, very intense work of Kiev air defense systems was observed.
Russian forces attacked the Kiev region with cruise missiles and kamikaze drones of neighbors.
According to some reports, the purpose of the attack was to search for air defense systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine … pic.twitter.com/p25OqPQo2r
—Spriter (@Spriter99880) May 16, 2023
With this he said that since 3:30 am (local time) “the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine from the north, south and east with 18 missiles of various types fired from the air, sea and land.” Six Kinzhal ballistic missiles were launched from six MiG-31Ks, nine Kalibr missiles were launched from ships in the Black Sea, and three Iskanders missiles were launched from the ground by S-400 systems.
He explained that “the 18 missiles were destroyed by the forces and means of air defense of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” referring to the attacks by Iranian-made “Shahid” drones. “They are all destroyed,” he said.
“200,000 liquidated Russian soldiers”
On the other hand, it estimated the number of Russian soldiers “liquidated” at about 200,000 since the start of the war, which was launched in February 2022 with the invasion order issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin, numbers far from previously officially recognized. Moscow.
In this sense, he stressed that “about 199,980” Russian soldiers were killed in the battles, including 520 in the past 24 hours, pointing to the destruction of 3,762 battle tanks, 3,150 artillery systems and 316 anti-aircraft defense systems.
Similarly, it reported the destruction of 308 aircraft, 294 helicopters, 2,732 drones, 973 cruise missiles, 18 boats, 6,068 vehicles and fuel tanks, and 410 pieces of “special equipment”. “The data is updated. Beat the occupier. Let’s win together. Our strength is in the truth.”
Russia has not provided data on casualties in the conflict since September, when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed 5,937 servicemen had been killed. Russian news portal Mediazona raised the total number of deaths to 22,055 – including 2,367 over the past 15 days – figures it considers “confirmed” by publicly available data, work carried out jointly with Britain’s BBC.
