UPDATE - Ukraine claims downing over 40 Russian missiles, drones

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT BY RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Ukraine claimed on Sunday that it downed over 40 Russian missiles and drones over multiple regions of the country during an overnight airstrike.

Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, said in a statement on Telegram that air defenses shot down 18 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles and 25 attack drones overnight.

The drones and missiles were downed over Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kyiv, Volyn, and Lviv regions, Oleshchuk added.

Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, described the attacks as the third massive missile attack on Ukraine in the last four days, and the second over Kyiv itself.

Popko said the air alert in the capital lasted for more than two hours, and about a dozen missiles were downed as they entered Kyiv in groups from the north.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhii Lysak said heating networks and power lines were damaged due to falling debris in the city of Kryvyi Rih.

Meanwhile, Lviv Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram that Russian drones and missiles attacked critical infrastructure in the region, resulting in a fire being put out by firefighters working on the spot.

Oleksiy Chernyshov, the CEO of Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz, said on Facebook that Russia attacked the energy infrastructure in the country, damaging the company's facilities in western Ukraine.

A later statement by the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the country's Aerospace Forces carried out a group strike against Ukrainian energy facilities, the country's gas industry, as well as places where unmanned boats are assembled and tested.

"As a result of the strike, the work of industrial enterprises producing and repairing weapons, military equipment, and ammunition was disorganized, and foreign-made military equipment and weapons transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries were destroyed," the statement said.