Local Ukrainian officials reported more missiles that they said appeared to have been launched from Belarus, including a barrage of 24 missiles that hit the outskirts of Zhytomyr, a city about 80 miles west of Kyiv.During the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an Air Force airman says that his unit was ordered to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The missiles struck targets in the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions, the military said. Once they were within about 30 miles of the Ukrainian border, the agency said, they fired at least 12 cruise missiles before returning to Russian airspace. The Ukrainian military intelligence agency said that six Russian Tu-22M3 strike bombers took off from the Shaykovka airfield in Russia’s Kaluga region, flying over Smolensk, before entering Belarusian airspace. Even in western and northern regions, where the wail of air alarms had become more sporadic, they rang out numerous times in less than 48 hours to signal that missiles had been fired within striking distance.ĭozens of the missile strikes were launched by Russian aircraft in Belarusian airspace overnight, according to a Belarusian monitoring group, Belarusian Guyun, which has been detailing Russian actions since the start of the war. The Russian strikes on Saturday also hit areas of the country that have been relatively quiet in recent weeks. Speaking in an interview with Radio Liberty, he said that the city was being shelled daily, and that “around 80 percent of those munitions are cluster munitions” fired from Russian multiple-launch rocket systems. The mayor of the embattled southern port city of Mykolaiv, which has been under attack from Russian forces since the start of the war, called for “everyone who wants to survive” to leave, because “it’s not clear when all this will be over.” He said the weapons were being used to hit “military targets of the enemy on our, Ukrainian, territory.”īut the Russian missile strikes offered a potent reminder of the vast destructive power of the arsenal at Moscow’s disposal, which has been both directed at military targets and used to indiscriminately pummel cities and towns. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, released a slickly produced video to celebrate the first battlefield use of advanced multiple-launch rocket systems from the United States.
Putin had planned, at home he has mostly succeeded in shielding Russians from the hardships of war - no draft, no mass funerals, no feelings of loss or conflict.Įven as Ukraine faces perhaps its toughest moment on the battlefield since the early weeks of the war, the commander of its military, Gen. Far From the War: Though much of Russia’s effort on the battlefield has not gone as Mr.Russia’s Military Supplies: According to newly declassified American intelligence, Russia is buying millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea - a sign that global sanctions have severely restricted its supply chains and forced Moscow to turn to pariah states.
Putin ordered a sharp increase in the size of Russia’s armed forces, he seems reluctant to declare a draft.