Russia launched an afternoon missile attack on Ukraine on July 24, firing two Oniks cruise missiles and three ballistic missiles, one of which was intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses. The daytime strike may have been timed to coincide with a public event taking place in the Kyiv region.
According to Ukrinform, Yurii Ihnat, Head of the Communications Department of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said this during a television broadcast.
"The whole of Ukraine can now see what happened. There was a strike involving ballistic missiles – high-speed ballistic missiles – from the northern direction, and then they followed up with Oniks missiles targeting southern Ukraine. They failed to reach their targets there, but the attack took place nevertheless, and the threat remains," Ihnat said.
He noted that Russia has accumulated a certain stockpile of missiles and warned that citizens should remain especially vigilant in the coming days and respond immediately to air raid alerts.
Ihnat also pointed out that, unlike previous attacks, Russia launched today's ballistic missile strike at daytime rather than at night, apparently because a large public event was taking place in Ukraine.
