Ukraine’s Air Force shot down this morning seven of 11 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles launched from Russian strategic bombers and all 32 Iranian Shahed drones buzzing around Khmelnytsky, Dnipro, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhia, Odesa, Kherson, Vinnytsia and Kyiv regions. None of the eight S-300/S-400 anti-aircraft guided missiles aimed at Kharkiv region were intercepted.
Slept right through it.
Most of the missiles targeted Khmelnytsky and Starokostiantyniv, because that’s where Russia thinks F-16 fighters might be based. The airfield there is also home to Su-24 Fencer strike/reconnaissance aircraft that are the launch platforms for Storm Shadow and SCALP EG cruise missiles.
Our nine fronts are holding, kind of. That’s to say there have been no big breakthroughs, er, yet. Tens of thousands of residents in Kharkiv and Sumy regions have been evacuated or are evacuating.
I’m collecting my war thoughts this week and will probably unload them on these pages in the coming weeks as our mismanaged disaster morphs into something more deadly. Until then, read this Reuters reportage and take long hard looks at the accompanying photographs, which also tell a story.
The Interfax-Ukraine news agency has been flooded by condolence messages for the death of its founder Oleksandr Martynenko. The farewell ceremony will take place at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv at 11.00 on May 31.