S-400 strike on Kyiv: Ukrainian Armed Forces repel the most massive ballistic missile attack on Kyiv
Never before has the enemy simultaneously launched 10 ballistic missiles to strike cities
Today, at exactly 3 a.m., Russia launched the most massive ballistic missile attack on Kyiv ever, with a total of 10 missiles fired by the enemy. Of these, all 10 were shot down, which is also a record for the destruction of ballistic targets in a single concentrated attack.
As for the type of missiles used by Russia today, the Ukrainian Air Force Command currently lists this column as “to be determined.” However, according to the President’s Office, these are 48H6 missiles from the S-400 air defense system, which the enemy also used, according to unconfirmed information, on the night of December 11.
It should be reminded that their first use for a strike on Kyiv was recorded back in January 2023. At that time, the missile debris, which Ukraine could not yet intercept, was identified as 48N6DM.
These missiles have a range of destruction of aerodynamic targets up to 250 km and are equipped with a warhead weighing 180 kg. In any case, the range of a ground strike exceeds 250 kilometers, which means that the S-400 missile loses control and falls freely somewhere in the target area from an altitude of several kilometers.
However, it should be noted that in September of this year, Russia announced the development of a missile for the S-400, which is specifically designed to hit ground targets and should have a larger warhead and accuracy.
It should also be noted that despite the missiles being shot down, their debris is still falling. Although there were no direct hits to the buildings, several combat units apparently fell near residential buildings. According to the Kyiv City Military Administration, in particular, in the Dniprovsky district of the capital, the blast wave smashed out the windows of two high-rise buildings. Burning debris also fell on a private house in Darnytsia district and a 9-storey building in Desnianskyi district, causing fires.
As of the morning, 53 people were injured, including 34 who sustained cut wounds (usually caused by broken glass), 8 who suffered acute stress, and others who suffered abrasions, burns, etc. At the same time, if at least one missile had not been shot down, then if it had hit a high-rise building, we would have been talking about an order of magnitude greater number of victims and dozens, if not hundreds, of dead.
Moreover, we are talking about the most concentrated ballistic missile attack on the city for all time. In particular, even when the enemy attacked Kyiv on May 16, 2023, and Patriot was operating in the “machine gun” mode, the enemy fired six X-47 Dagger and three ballistic missiles, i.e. a total of 9 ballistic targets, but then cruise missiles were also flying.
