Ukraine: 2 Russian air defense systems struck
Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday it had hit three Russian surface-toair missile systems in Russian-occupied Crimea overnight, its second reported strike on air defenses on the peninsula this week.
The strikes targeted an S-300 system and two more advanced S-400 systems near Belbek and Sevastopol, Ukraine’s general staff said.
“As a result of the strikes, two radars of the S-300 and S-400 complexes were destroyed. Information about the third radar is being clarified,” it said on Telegram.
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol said that air defenses repelled the missile attack overnight and that no damage had been done.
Ukraine’s general staff also said the attack had caused munitions to detonate at all three sites struck.
On Monday, Ukraine’s military said it hit three air defense systems near Yevpatoriya and Chornomorske on the peninsula, also damaging radars.
Over the last two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has carried out multiple air and naval strikes on Russian targets in Crimea and caused significant damage to Moscow’s fleet in the Black Sea.
Russia forcibly annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and regards it now as an integral part of its territory. Kyiv has vowed to drive Russian forces from Crimea as well as from other Ukrainian territory currently held by Moscow. Russia launched missile and drone attacks on Ukraine early on Wednesday, causing a fire at an industrial facility, damaging residences and injuring several people across six regions, local authorities said.
Ukrainian military said it shot down five out of six missiles and all 24 drones launched during Russia’s overnight attack.
Ukraine’s air defense systems destroyed all air weapons on their approach to the capital, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv city military administration said on Telegram.
Ukrainian servicemen scan the sky for Russian aircraft at a position in the Donetsk region, on Tuesday.
The debris damaged an industrial facility in the Kyiv region, causing a fire, Kyiv region governor said. Over 105 people were using 30 pieces of equipment to put out the fire as of Wednesday morning.
The attack injured one resident and damaged a private residence, a garage, a gas station and a storage unit, the governor said.
Dnipropetrovsk governor said the attack injured three people and damaged nine private residences, reporting that Ukrainian military shot down 11 drones over his region.
Hungary will not block NATO decisions on providing support for Ukraine but has agreed that it will not be involved, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday during a visit to Budapest by the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Hungary has been at odds with other NATO countries over Orban’s continued cultivation of close ties to Russia and refusal to send arms to Ukraine, with Budapest’s foreign minister last month labeling plans to help the wartorn nation a “crazy mission.”
“Hungary made clear today that it will not block decisions by NATO which, although they differ from our rational assessment of the situation, are shared and advocated by the rest of the alliance,” Orban told a news conference.