According to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the chief commander of Ukraine's Armed Forces, the Air Force shot down 54 out of 69 missiles Russia had fired against Ukraine during its eighth mass strike targeting energy infrastructure on Dec. 29.
Zaluzhnyi said Russia had launched a mix of air and sea-based cruise missiles, and anti-aircraft-guided missiles from S-300 missile systems in the morning.
“The enemy keeps resorting to its missile terror against the peaceful citizens of Ukraine,” Zaluzhnyi said in a Telegram post.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko earlier reported that the air force had shot down 16 Russian missiles over the capital, though he did not disclose how many missiles were fired at the city.
As a result of the morning’s mass strike, emergency power outages were rolled in the southern Odesa Oblast and the central Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, energy giant DTEK said. About 40% of Kyiv residents and 90% of Lviv residents in western Ukraine were cut off from electricity as of the morning, city mayors said.
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