Russia targets key infrastructure in overnight attack across Ukraine
Lviv, Ukraine, Feb 16 (EFE).- Russia launched a massive overnight missile strike across Ukraine targeting key infrastructure, the Ukrainian army reported on Thursday.
Commander-in-chief of the armed forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi said on Telegram that Ukraine’s military had downed 16 of the 36 missiles fired by Russia.
“Between 01:40 a.m. and 03:45 a.m. February 16, 2023, the enemy fired air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, guided anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles,” he said, as cited in English by the Ukrinform state news agency.
The missiles were fired by aircraft from near the Russian city of Kursk, near the Caspian Sea, near the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol as well as from the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Ukrainian authorities said.
Missiles that made it through Ukrainian air-defense hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv and as far west as Lviv, near the Polish border, respective regional authorities reported.
Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office of Ukraine, said on Telegram that strikes were also reported in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovograd.
The latest volley of missiles from Russia come as the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine looms amid reports of an uptick of fighting on the eastern front, around the Donetsk city of Bakhmut, which for weeks has been at the center of a bloody battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces. EFE
int-rml/jt
