Russia has launched a new wave of attacks on Ukraine, apparently targeting a military airport in the west of the country.
"In the Lviv region they turned 180 degrees and ended up flying into the Khmelnytskyi region in the Starokostyantyniv district," Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat told news television on Wednesday about the Russian missiles.
According to him, projectiles were intercepted over the Kiev, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions. A total of 36 cruise missiles were intercepted by the evening, the air force said. In the meantime, an air alert had sounded throughout the country.
The target of the attacks is said to have been Su-24 fighter-bombers at the Starokostyantyniv military airport.
The Ukrainian air force has carried out several successful airstrikes with Su-24s using Storm Shadow cruise missiles on Russian ammunition depots on the occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. The Starokostyantyniv airbase has been repeatedly attacked with missiles by the Russian military since the full-scale Russian invasion began over 17 months ago.
It was not initially known whether there was any destruction this time.
Afterwards, the head of the Ukrainian air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, thanked the members of the air defence. "The day was not easy, but thanks to the coordinated actions of all sky guards, this attack was repelled," he wrote on Telegram.
In the afternoon, three Kalibr missiles were fired over the Vinnytsia area. Information on the possible use of Kinshal (Dagger) hypersonic missiles will be provided later, he said.
