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Russia hits Ukraine with another air attack

19.05.2023 12:00
Russia has launched a fresh wave of air strikes on Ukraine overnight, targeting the capital Kyiv as well as Lviv and Kryvyi Rih, among other cities, according to reports. 
Photo:
Photo:PAP/Abaca/AA/ABACA

The attack was carried out using drones and missiles in the early hours of Friday morning, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

Air defence repels drone strike on Kyiv

Russia targeted Kyiv with several waves of Iranian-made Shahed drones, according to officials.

Serhiy Popko, who heads the city’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app: "All detected air targets moving towards Kyiv have been destroyed by the assets and personnel of our air defence. Strikes on Kyiv have been prevented."

It was the 10th Russian air raid on Ukraine’s capital in May, officials said, as quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda website.

Two injured in Russian drone attack on Kryvyi Rih

Meanwhile, two people were wounded in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, after Russian drones struck the premises of a private industrial company and an administrative building, according to news outlets. 

A woman was hospitalised with serious injuries, the PAP news agency reported.

An explosion also rang out in the western city of Lviv while an air-raid warning was in force, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv province, wrote on Telegram that five UAVs had been downed overnight over the region, adding that “there are no casualties or damage in our region.” 

He urged residents to take note of air alerts, saying that “this is the best help for our defenders,” Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported. 

Ukraine’s air force shoots down 16 drones, 3 missiles

Ukraine’s air defence destroyed 16 Shahed drones and three Kalibr cruise missiles fired by Russia during the night, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

In all, Russia’s attack comprised 22 Shahed drones launched from the north and southeast, and six Kalibr cruise missiles fired from ships in the Black Sea, according to officials.

"During this night attack, three cruise missiles and 16 strike drones were destroyed by air defence assets and personnel from Air Commands Centre, Zakhid (West) and Pivden (South) of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Ukraine’s air force said, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda.

Ukraine makes ‘significant gains’ around Bakhmut: ISW

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces on Thursday “seized the tactical initiative and made tactically significant gains” in counterattack operations around the key eastern city of Bakhmut, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank.

Ukrainian Eastern Group of Forces Spokesman Col. Serhiy Cherevaty said: “Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut are advancing, while shelling the enemy’s rear.”

He added that Ukrainian troops were “using all the available weapons,” and mainly targeting Russian weapons storage areas.

“We have managed to destroy eight such sites over the past 24 hours,” Cherevaty told the PAP news agency, in an interview published on Friday morning. 

Friday is day 450 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

(pm/gs)

Source: PAP, Ukrainska Pravda, The Guardian, ISW