The attack that Russia has launched today against Ukraine is a combined operation of ground incursions, but also with the use of cruise missiles to strike targets across the country, including military bases, ammunition depots, and airports.
The missile it uses is believed to be the Kalibr, a long-range cruise missile developed by Russia as a rival to the US-made Tomahawk.
With nine meters long, weighing up to 2.3 tons and a 500 kg thermonuclear or high explosive warheadthe Kalibr is Russia’s weapon of choice when it comes to launch precision attacks from a distance against enemy targets.
Developed in the 1990s and first used in combat in 2015, the Kalibr can be launched by ships, submarines or ground troops, with jet-launched versions believed to be in production.
The result of that missile attack was noticeable for a shelling in a residential neighborhood in Chuguev, in eastern Ukraine, one of the first targets of the invasion launched by Russia this Thursdaydespite the fact that they assure that they were directed to military barracks and ammunition warehouses.
The missile has left a crater 4 to 5 meters in diameter between two five-story buildings that were totally destroyed and where firefighters are trying to extinguish the last flames.
Numerous buildings further away from the impact have been badly affected, with broken windows whose frames hang in the void.
In this city 30 kilometers from Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, Russian bombardments resounded for part of the night.
The police did not release a balance of damages but, in the morning, these seemed considerable. Four buildings were completely destroyed. Above them rose a thick column of black smoke visible from afar.
According to local residents, the missile was aimed at the nearby military airport.
“Defend my country”
The Russian army claimed on Thursday to have destroyed anti-aircraft defense systems and having put Ukrainian air bases “out of service”. He also indicated that “the civilian population has nothing to fear,” although Kiev reported a dozen civilian deaths.
The threat does not come only from the sky. The Ukrainian border guard announced Russian ground incursions from various points, also from the east, in the breakaway Luhansk region.
The local population, hardened by eight years of armed conflict with pro-Russian rebels, is clear about what to do in this scenario.
“If they continue to bombard us, I will find weapons and defend my homeland, it doesn’t matter if I am 62 years old,” says Vladimir Levashov, a resident of Chuguev.
“And that I am Russian. But if you look at history, if you read books, 300 or 400 years ago it was the same thing. The Russians are looters.”he is outraged.
The Ukrainian army is omnipresent on the main roads of the east. Between Kramatorsk and Kharkiv, a convoy of vehicles flying the yellow and blue Ukrainian flag is stopped.
evacuations
300 km away, in Mariupol, powerful explosions rocked the main port city in the east of the country, relatively spared from the hostilities of recent weeks.
In that area, close to the front line, the evacuations of the civilian population begin in villages such as Zoloty and Gorsky. “We will take the population to the nearest train station,” says Alexei Babchenko, a civil defense spokesman.
Further away, in the Novotoshkovka municipality, evacuation is no longer possible. Hours after the start of the attack, the Russian artillery fire is too intense and communications are complicated.
“The offensive is underway along the entire demarcation line in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions,” Babchenko said. “The fighting is going on everywhere,” he added. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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