United States: A Russian missile attack targeted a significant Ukrainian military airfield on Monday morning, according to officials from Ukraine, as part of a concerted Russian campaign to soften up Ukraine and put pressure on its air defenses.
In the surprisingly rare admission that the infrastructure of its military base was attacked, the Ukrainian Air Force stated that the Kinzhal hypersonic missile, which can travel at several times the speed of sound, struck in the vicinity of the Starokostiantyniv air base in western Ukraine.
As reported by the New York Times, In September, Russia has targeted Ukrainian cities and towns with drone and missile attacks every day, according to the Ukrainian military, and such attacks have not ceased in October.
The extent of the damage which is actually caused by the missile inside the Ukrainian territory near the base has not been revealed and the base has been targeted often since Russia began its full-scale invasion last year. According to Russian defense ministry on Monday, the Russian military has damaged facilities at two Ukrainian military airports, without naming the airports.
Earlier this year the Kremlin has proposed that Starokostiantyniv would harbour F-16 fighter jets supplied by the West since the warplanes were reported to be in transit to Ukraine. This could not be confirmed, and Ukraine has not disclosed where it deploys the powerful jets.
The Russians have for the past month or so flown sorties that involved mainly drones most likely to gauge the ability of Ukrainian air forces to respond before it launches more potent airstrikes that would involve staging more missiles. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that in the past one-week Russia fired about 20 missiles and nearly 400 drones.
Launched daily with waves of drones, it has two main advantages for Russia. First, it puts pressure on Ukraine to exhaust some of their stockpiles of missiles to shoot down the drones.
Secondly, it exposes the location of the Ukrainian air defenses by forcing the Kyiv’s troops to fire their weapons to shoot down the drones facilitating Moscow’s planning for the future attacks.
