Russia said on Monday that its air defense systems shot down four US-made missiles over Russia’s southern region that borders Ukraine.
The Russian defense ministry said Russian forces shot down four US-made missiles in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, within 24 hours, state news agency TASS reported.
“Four American ‘HARM’ anti-radar missiles were shot down in the airspace of the Belgorod region,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on social media.
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Meanwhile, Moscow launched a new drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Monday.
Ukrainian officials claimed Ukrainian air defense systems shot down most of the drones launched by Russia on Monday. “During the air patrol, 23 enemy UAVs were registered over the capital. The air defense destroyed 18 drones,” the Kyiv city military government said on social media.
According to the Kyiv civil government, the air raid sirens were first sounded at 1 am.
It was 56:00 PM (2356 GMT) and lasted just over 3 hours. A second siren he heard at five o’clock: Canceled within 30 minutes at 24:00 (0324 GMT).
Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that an “explosion” shook the Shevchenkivsky district in the capital’s center and the Solomianski district to the west. He said the attack damaged critical infrastructure, but no casualties were known.
Ukrainian power company DTEK said an emergency blackout would be implemented after the Kyiv attack.
Moscow said the strike on Ukrainian infrastructure was in response to an explosion at the Kerch Bridge, which connects mainland Russia with Crimea.
The development comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit Minsk on Monday for the first time since 2019 to meet with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The war in Ukraine began in late February when Moscow declared that it aimed to protect pro-Russian residents of eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk provinces from persecution in Kyiv. Since the start of the war, Ukraine’s Western allies, including the European Union and the United States, have shipped large amounts of heavy weapons to Kyiv and attacked Russia with various sanctions. Moscow says such measures would only prolong the war.
Source: Thedefensepost
