Ukraine attacked overnight by Russian missile barrage

Ukraine suffered a large Russian missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, while its air defences were able to down a far lower proportion of them than usual.

According to Ukraine's air force, Russia launched 37 missiles and three drones. Eight missiles were downed, it said in a statement on social media.

The air force's spokesperson said earlier this week that Ukraine was now suffering from a deficit of air defence missiles. It was not immediately clear whether this or any other factor was the reason for the low hit rate.

Most of the types of missile used overnight were extremely fast-moving ballistic types, the air force said. These are far harder to shoot down.

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"It should be noted that more than 20 of all the listed (weapons) which were not included in the number of the downed, did not reach their targets as a result of active countermeasures by electronic warfare," the statement said.

There were no details on the targets of the strike.

Air defences shot down Russian missiles in at least five regions across Ukraine, according to local officials from those provinces.

The large south-eastern city of Dnipro was struck, the local governor said, also without providing detail as to what was hit.

Police in the northern region of Chernihiv posted a picture of a large crater made by a downed missile.

“As a result of being hit by the debris of an enemy missile, several private homes and non-residential buildings were damaged, one building was practically destroyed,” the police wrote. No people were hurt but a dog was killed, police said.

Russia’s Ministry of Justice late on Friday designated one of the country’s most popular fiction writers a “foreign agent” because of his opposition to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The historical detective stories of Boris Akunin, the pen name of Georgian-born Grigori Chkhartishvili, used to be best sellers in Russia before the authorities turned on him for what they said were his unacceptable anti-Russian views.

The justice ministry cited Chkhartishvili’s opposition to what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine and accused him of distributing false and negative information about Russia and of helping raise money for the Ukrainian military.

The 67-year-old author lives in Britain.

The “foreign agent” designation carries a negative Soviet-era connotation and obliges people to identify themselves as foreign agents on social media and in other publications as well as exposing them to burdensome financial reporting requirements.

Other writers and cultural figures who have angered the authorities by speaking out against the Ukraine war have received the same designation.

Books by “Boris Akunin” – best known for his fictional Tsarist-era detective Erast Fandorin – have already been removed from sale in Russia after the authorities added him to a list of people they accuse of being involved in terrorism or extremism.

Chkhartishvili, who makes no secret of his opposition to Russia’s war in Ukraine, made light of his foreign agent designation in a social media post.

“They are writing that I have been declared a foreign agent today. Me, a terrorist and extremist?! I feel like Bin Laden who has been given a ticket for parking illegally,” he wrote.

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024