kyiv (EFE).- The Ukrainian military authorities today activated the anti-aircraft alert throughout the country due to the possibility of a Russian attack with the supersonic ‘Kinzhal’ missile.
The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yurii Ignat, has revealed in a press conference that the takeoff of a Russian MiG-31K plane, which is the one that transports the Kinzhal missiles, is what has led the authorities to activate the alert, because the Ukrainian army does not have anti-aircraft defenses capable of protecting the entire territory from this type of missile.
“I want to remind you that we do not have enough Patriot systems that can protect the skies over Ukraine from this type of weaponry,” Ignat said, addressing the Ukrainians. “It is an extremely fast and very precise aeroballistic missile,” added the military.
A Ukrainian military spokesman announced this weekend the interception days ago in the sky of the capital of a Russian Kinzhal missile.
A missile with more than 2,000 kilometers of range
kyiv reportedly used one of the Patriot anti-missile systems received last month from its NATO allies to intercept it.
Up to that time, Ukraine did not have anti-aircraft defense systems capable of intercepting this type of missile.
However, kyiv can only cover a limited number with the number of Patriot systems received.
Kinzhal (Dagger in Russian) are airborne missiles that have a range of more than 2,000 kilometers and a speed ten times greater than sound.
This high-precision hypersonic missile can carry both nuclear warheads and conventional payloads.
One dead in Odessa and five injured in kyiv
Russia has already launched this morning a new offensive on Ukraine with drones and missiles.
In the Odessa region, located on the shores of the Black Sea, a security guard at a food store has been killed in a missile attack.
According to a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian army, the body of the guard was found in the rubble of the ship after the attack, in which three other workers suffered minor injuries.
The warehouse caught fire as a result of the impact. More than 90 firefighters were mobilized to put out the fire, which was extinguished during the early hours of the morning.
In addition to the warehouse, the attack also hit a recreational area on the Black Sea coast. According to the southern command of the Ukrainian army, the missiles were launched from aircraft.
In kyiv, five people were injured in a drone strike.
The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed on his Telegram channel that “in the early morning of May 8, Moscow launched another large-scale attack on Ukraine.”
“Three people were injured in explosions in Kiev’s Solomyanskyi district, and two others were injured when drone debris landed in the Sviatoshynskyi district, both west of the capital’s center,” Klitschko said.
The city’s military administration explained, for its part, that drone debris also fell in the central Shevchenkivskyi district. A high-pressure gas pipeline was damaged as a result of the impacts, local agencies report.