Russia launched another wave of missile and drone attacks across Ukraine on the evening of November 15, shortly after Russian forces withdrew from the southeastern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which was the only provincial capital captured by Russian forces. since the beginning of the war. The large-scale Russian offensive was aimed at destroying Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), it was the largest missile attack since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said the Russians fired about 100 cruise missiles at 13 Ukrainian provinces, including Kyiv, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Kirovkhrad, Cherkasy, Volyn and Kharkiv. Ukrainian forces claimed to have shot down 73 cruise missiles and all drones involved in the November 15 attack.
Ukrainian air defense missile crashes into Russian cruise missile
While these claims cannot be independently verified, there have been videos on social media of purported Russian Kalibr cruise missiles being intercepted by Ukrainian air defense missiles. Of these, one particular video clearly shows the exact moment a Ukrainian interceptor missile struck what appears to be a Kalibr cruise missile in flight. You may have seen it from yesterday – but IYMI – here’s a rare close-up of a Kalibr cruise missile being shot down. Considering that it flies low and over so many settlements, their destruction can almost be called “population”. pic.twitter.com/n8GK9oObUJ — Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) November 16, 2022 Specifically, the interceptor missile seen in the video appears to be traveling much faster than the alleged Russian cruise missile. Apart from this, another video is widely shared on social media which purportedly shows two Kalibr missiles being shot down by Ukrainian interceptor missiles. Spectacular footage: Two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles were shot down within seconds over Kyiv Oblast on November 15. First is a sonic boom and a flash on the horizon, second a clear view of interception by the German Iris-T air defense system. pic.twitter.com/bDp1twuzJB — Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) November 17, 2022 The video reportedly shows two rockets flying over a residential area and exploding after both were intercepted. In the case of the first interception, only an explosion is heard, but the second interception that follows shortly after is clearly captured on video. The video was reportedly shot in the Kyiv region and the German IRIS-T air defense system reportedly carried out the second interception, according to a Ukrainian journalist who also writes for the BBC.
Not the first time
The November 15 Russian bombing was much larger in scale than a similar one on October 10, which was also followed by videos released on social media of a Kalibr cruise missile that appeared to explode in flight. Ukrainian air defenses destroy a Russian 3M-54 Kalibr cruise missile in flight moments before impact. pic.twitter.com/Gp1bhZvhHP — Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) October 18, 2022 According to the Ukrainian Air Force estimate, Russia launched more than 83 missiles in its attacks across Ukraine on October 10 after the attack on the Kerch bridge. Shortly after that attack, the Ukrainian Air Force reported intercepting 43 of the 83 missiles it claimed Russia had fired. “Of the 43 missiles, more than half were destroyed by our air defenses. Considering the means we have in our arsenal today, this is an extremely high indicator,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ikhnat said at the time. Assuming Ukraine was able to intercept 73 cruise missiles used in the November 15 attack, this would indicate an improvement in the accuracy of its air defense systems. Addressing a briefing shortly after the October 10 missile attack, a senior US Defense official said: “We received indications yesterday that some Kalibr missiles were launched from the sea and we understand that all were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses.” File photo: Launch of Kalibr cruise missiles According to the US defense official, four Kalibr missiles were fired from Russian naval ships deployed in the Black Sea. “So we think there were four [missiles] was launched yesterday from the Black Sea, and of those four, we believe all four were intercepted,” the official said at the briefing, without specifying which system intercepted the missiles. The official noted that about half a dozen Russian warships are deployed in the Black Sea, and about half of them are Kalibr-capable.
Russia is destroying Ukraine’s energy infrastructure
Since early October, Russia appears to have stepped up large-scale missile and drone attacks aimed at systematically destroying Ukraine’s critical energy grid before the onset of winter. IRIS-T SLM ground air defense system Even in the Nov. 15 bombardment, Russian missiles and drones targeted energy facilities in nearly every region where they were deployed, according to Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo. On October 20, Ukraine began to curtail electricity consumption for the first time since the beginning of the war. Oleksandr Kharchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s energy minister, said on October 19 that the government should impose restrictions on electricity supplies nationwide and planned blackouts across the country. “Unfortunately, according to new data, about 40% of the total infrastructure has been seriously damaged,” Kharchenko told Ukrainian TV, adding that “restoration and repair work is ongoing, but miracles are possible only to a certain extent ». “Therefore, we will have to expect not only emergency but also scheduled outages today and tomorrow so that the network is not overloaded,” he said. All northern and southern regions of Ukraine are under emergency blackouts to stabilize the grid.
