A Russian missile attack struck near a major Ukrainian military airfield on Monday morning, officials from Ukraine said, part of a broad campaign of assaults by Moscow aimed at degrading Ukraine’s military infrastructure and wearing down its air defenses.
In a rare acknowledgment that a military base had been hit, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that a Kinzhal hypersonic missile, which can travel several times the speed of sound, hit near the Starokostiantyniv air base in western Ukraine.
In September, Russia launched drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns every day according to the country’s military, a pattern of attacks that has continued into October.
Ukraine did not disclose the extent of the damage caused by the missile hit near the base, which has been regularly attacked since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in early 2022. Russia’s defense ministry claimed on Monday that it had inflicted damage on infrastructure at two Ukrainian military airfields, but did not specify their locations.
Earlier this year, the Kremlin suggested that Starokostiantyniv would house Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets, as the aircraft were en route to Ukraine. The claim could not be independently verified, and Ukraine has kept secret where it bases the powerful jets.
Russian air attacks over the past month or so have mostly involved drones, in what military experts say is a strategy to probe and exhaust Ukrainian air defenses before launching more powerful air assaults involving a greater number missiles. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Sunday that Russia had launched about 20 missiles and nearly 400 drones in the past week.
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