The Ukrainian military said that the majority of cruise missiles fired at Ukraine on Thursday were intercepted, with its defense forces shooting down 54 of 69, according to preliminary data.
“The enemy keeps resorting to its missile terror against the peaceful citizens of Ukraine,” commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said on the messaging app Telegram. “According to preliminary data, 69 missiles were launched in total. 54 enemy cruise missiles were shot down by the assets of the Defence Forces of Ukraine.”
Zaluzhnyi said the Russians had launched air and sea-based cruise missiles, as well as anti-aircraft guided missiles such as the S-300 at energy infrastructure facilities. The Ukrainian military also shot down 11 Iranian Shahed drones, which are designed to detonate on impact.
There were conflicting reports on the scale of the missile attacks on Thursday. An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in an earlier post that Russia had launched more than 120 missiles in the barrage, without offering further details. He said the intent of the attack was to “destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse.”
