Overnight into 9 March, Russia launched a massive night missile attack on Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air force command reported that the massive missile attack on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure was launched from 10 Tu-95 strategic aircraft, 7 Tu-22M3 long-range aircraft, 8 Su-35 fighters, 6 MiG-31K aircraft, and 3 Kalibr missile carriers in the Black Sea.
In total, Russia launched 81 missiles of various types:
- 28 Kh-101/Kh-555 air-launched cruise missiles;
- 20 Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles;
- 6 Kh-22 air-launched cruise missiles;
- 6 Kh-47 Kinzhal air-launched cruise missiles;
- 8 guided aircraft missiles (2 Kh-31P and 6 Kh-59);
- 13 S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles.
- In addition, 8 Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs were launched.
Out of these, Ukraine destroyed 34 cruise missiles out of the 48 Kh-101/Kh-555, “Kalibr” cruise missiles, and 4 “Shahed-136/131” UAVs. As well, all the guided aircraft missiles failed to reach their targets.
The air force noted that Ukraine does not have the means to destroy ballistic missiles such as Kh-22, Kh-47 Kinzhal, and S-300 — that is, 30% of all the missiles that Russia launched overnight.
UPDATE: speaking about the attack on air of Ukraine’s national newscast, spox of Ukraine’s Air Force Yuriy Ihnat said that the attack was unprecedented: never before had Russians used so many different types of missiles simultaneously. He noted that this was the first time that Russia launched six supersonic Kinzhal ballistic missiles simultaneously and noted that it used strategic and long-range aircraft, MiG-31K fighters.
