As winter sets in, Russia ramped up air attacks on a broad range of Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Despite losing most of the cruise missiles it launched, it still managed to inflict heavy damage and kill or wound dozens of civilians. The air assault also forced Ukraine to make difficult tradeoffs between defending its cities and expanding the capacity of its frontline fighters.
At the same time, the Kremlin is experimenting with a new tactical approach. While Russian forces still mostly use long-ranged cruise and ballistic missiles, it has been trying to deploy a variety of shorter-range weapons, including drones, that can strike targets more quickly and at closer range. Some of the drones are even fitted with guided bombs. The result is a more unpredictable and chaotic attack campaign that makes it harder for Ukraine to defend its cities while providing thicker air defenses to the troops on the front lines.
The airstrikes were accompanied by shelling with ground-to-ground weapons in the separatist-controlled east. A Ukrainian military statement said it intercepted more than 40 “means of enemy air attack” — including cruise and Shahed-type missiles as well as drones — and destroyed eight. The statement did not elaborate on what kind of drones were used. Still, Ukrainian media reported that the strikes included new types of drones with jet engines that are more powerful and faster than propeller-powered models. These have a more visible exhaust and can confuse anti-aircraft batteries that rely on thermal sighting to spot drones at night.
In the capital, Kyiv, several dozen missiles were launched against the city overnight, with more than 30 intercepted, according to the head of the Kyiv military administration, Serhiy Poplo. The missiles hit several high-rise apartments and warehouses and caused some fires. In the eastern city of Dnipro, debris from a shot-down drone fell on a building and started a fire that trapped four maternity hospital patients. The fire was eventually extinguished.
The attacks also targeted the industrial zone of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital of southwestern Ukraine. One of the explosions ripped through the roof of a supermarket in central Zaporizhzhia, and an employee told the BBC she was forced to jump off a ladder into the air to escape. The other explosion struck a warehouse. One employee of the building was killed, and another was seriously injured, the regional governor said. In the nearby village of Petropavlovka, residents were forced to evacuate their homes.
One of the victims, Tetiana Sakhnenko, 47, told the BBC she was sleeping next to the room where the drone landed and suffered shock. “It can happen to anyone’s home, even if you think your own is safe,” she said. “It’s frightening.” The attack comes as Ukraine tries to overcome divisions in sending aid to the war-ravaged country. A senior official of the United Nations humanitarian office warned that the latest Russian attack was inflicting “unimaginable levels of suffering” on civilians and may prompt more refugees.
