Russia's $1.3 billion aerial assault on Ukraine. The most significant attack since the conflict began
On Friday morning, Russian Federation troops launched 158 rockets, missiles, and drones towards Ukraine. The massive attack targeted critical infrastructure, industrial and military sites, and civilian areas. The assault hit several Ukrainian cities the hardest, leading to high casualties and fatalities.
1:24 PM EST, December 30, 2023
Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Lviv were the cities most affected by the attack.
The Ukrainians are tallying up the human and material costs. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have never faced such a type of assault before. With numerous targets, decision-making on which threats to address first became challenging. Ukrainian defense forces managed to neutralize 114 targets within their borders.
In recorded history, this was the largest single aerial strike on Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, which started on February 24, 2022. The invasion was a costly affair for the aggressors - initial estimates from the "UA War Infographics" channel, using data from the Ukrainian army, suggest a total expenditure of nearly 1.3 billion dollars.
According to Moscow's official records, the expenditure on drones, rockets, and maneuvering missiles totaled 1.283 billion dollars.
According to official data, the total cost incorporates 122 Russian-made rockets and missiles and 36 Iranian-made Shahed 136 and Shahed 131 drones. The Russians had been amassing this vast arsenal for weeks, intending to damage Ukraine by the end of the year significantly. Every part of the attack was meticulously planned; the targets were not randomly selected.
"Russia attacked Ukraine with every resource it had," stated a distraught President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The weapons used include hypersonic Dagger missiles, S-300 missile launchers, and Shahed drones. General Valerii Zaluzhny provided a comprehensive report on the assault.
The Ukrainian army could trace the trajectory and origin of enemy fire precisely. The attack involved strategic bombardment planes like the Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3, MiG-31K, Su-35 fighters, S-300, S-400, and Iskander-M ballistic missile launchers, plus the kamikaze drones Shahed 136 and Shahed 131. The scale of forces and resources mobilized for the assault was enormous.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kyiv, at least 12 people were killed and 76 injured. Power supply disruptions were reported in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Kharkiv regions due to the Russian attack, as per Ukraine's Ministry of Energy.
