Russian forces conducted a missile attack on Ukraine, targeting Kyiv and the Khmelnytskyi Oblast on the morning of 7 October.
The Ukrainian Air Force detected high-speed targets, including a Kinzhal missile heading towards Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast. According to Khmelnytskyi Oblast Governor Serhii Tiurin, there were no hits to civilian or critical infrastructure.
This isn’t the first time the Russian military has launched Kinzhal missiles at these targets. On 27 September, Russia attacked Starokostiantyniv, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, with Kinzhal missiles, targeting an airfield with concrete shelters that are valuable even when empty.
Military Analyst Yan Matveev explained, “Starokostiantyniv is an airfield with concrete shelters. They are probably trying to hit them. Even in an empty format, these shelters are still valuable. Because if they are destroyed, you can’t put an airplane there anymore. So you either destroy the plane or at least the shelter itself.”
Matveev also said earlier that the Kinzhal is used in exceptional cases due to its high cost, particularly to detect F-16 fighters, but Patriot air defense systems can shoot down these missiles.
According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, air defense systems were activated on 7 October, shortly after the initial reports. The debris of the downed missiles fell in three districts of the capital: the Solomyanskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, and Holosiivskyi districts.
Klitschko later said falling missile debris caused a fire in the Solomyanskyi district. There were reportedly no casualties. Missile fragments were also found near the entrance of an apartment building, in a private house’s yard, and near a supermarket in the Solomyanskyi district.
Kyiv City Military Administration Head Serhiy Popko said that debris damaged the roof of a multi-story residential building in the Solomyanskyi district, and a fragment fell on school grounds.
The Russian troops launched a missile attack using Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles from MiG-31K carriers. Popko said that all aerial targets were successfully destroyed.
Ukrainian Air Defense reported it shot down 32 drones and 2 Kinzhal Missiles overnight on 7 October.
The Russians struck with an Iskander-M ballistic missile, a Kh-59 guided air-to-surface missile, an unidentified missile from Kursk and Belgorod oblasts, as well as strike UAVs launched from various locations in Russia, including Orel, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Kursk, and Yeysk.
The Air Force confirmed “the downing of two Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles in the Kyiv Oblast and 32 Russian strike drones in Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv oblasts.”
According to the Sumy Military Administration head, Oleksiy Drozdenko, explosions were heard in Sumy and Konotop.
An explosion was reported in Konotop at about 10 pm, according to Konotop’s mayor, Artem Semenikhin.
Air raid alerts were active in Sumy, Chernihiv, Kyiv (excluding the city of Kyiv), Cherkasy, Poltava, Kharkiv, and Donetsk oblasts.
Governor Serhii Lysak said an enterprise was reportedly damaged due to a nighttime missile attack in Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Ukraine’s defense downed four drones over the oblast.
About 37 Russian drones were lost in different oblasts of Ukraine, probably as a result of active countermeasures against electronic warfare.
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