Ukraine says its air defences shoot down 15 Russian missiles

Three missiles get through and cause no casualties, Kiev says, but one person is reportedly killed in separate attacks in Kherson.

Ukraine says its air defenses destroyed 15 of 18 missiles launched by Russian forces as Moscow intensified attacks on its neighbor in recent days.

“Around 2:30 am [on Monday, 23:30 GMT on Sunday] the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine from strategic aircraft,” Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on his Telegram channel.

No civilian casualties or destruction of residential buildings or infrastructure were recorded, officials in Kiev said.

All missiles aimed at Ukraine’s capital were destroyed in what they say was the second attack on Kiev in three days.

Air defense systems were also deployed to protect the Kiev region, which is a separate administrative entity from the capital, officials said.

At least one person has been killed in a Russian attack in the southern region of Kherson.

“Over the past day, the enemy carried out 39 shellings, during which 163 shells were fired by heavy artillery, Grads [multiple-rocket launchers]UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones] and aviation,” says Oleksandr Prokudin of the military administration for Kherson. “The enemy shelled the city of Kherson eight times. As a result of Russian aggression, one person died and three others, including a child, were injured.”

Russia still controls part of the Kherson region, but withdrew from the eponymous regional capital in November.

Russian missiles also targeted the central city of Dnipro. Air defense crews shot down seven missiles, but 25 people sought medical attention, a regional council official said.

The eastern city of Pavlohrad was hit twice overnight and an industrial enterprise, 19 apartment buildings and 25 private buildings were damaged or destroyed, he said.

Ukraine’s air defense systems have been bolstered in recent months by deliveries of Western equipment, including the US Patriot missile systems received in April.

The latest Russian attacks came as Kiev prepares for a long-awaited counter-offensive after promising to expel Russian forces from territory they captured in the east and south following their 2022 invasion.

Main events, day 432

• Russia’s defense ministry said Russian forces have taken control of new areas of the eastern city of Bakhmut, where much of the fighting has been concentrated.
• The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner has threatened to withdraw his troops from Bakhmut over the mounting casualties.
• A Ukrainian military spokesman said Kiev controlled a key supply route to Bakhmut. The “road of life” is a vital route between the ruined city and the nearby town of Chasiv Yar to the west, a distance of 17 km (11 mi).
• At least four civilians were killed and two injured in Ukrainian shelling of a village in Russia’s Bryansk region, the regional governor said.
• Russia said a drone strike caused a fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence official, told RBC Ukraine that more than 10 tanks of oil products had been destroyed, but he did not claim responsibility for the attack.
• The Russian army replaced its top general in charge of logistics in anticipation of an expected counter-offensive by Kiev. The Russian Defense Ministry has not said why Mikhail Mizintsev was replaced after only seven months.