According to the government, a fire station in Kiev was hit by a Russian missile attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Friday. At least eight firefighters were injured, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Images from the news portal showed a destroyed building and damaged emergency vehicles. The attack was on the city of Izjum.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russia attacked the south of the country with drones. Five of six drones destined for the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions were intercepted, a military spokeswoman said. The fifth hit an infrastructure installation. There were no victims. There was initially no comment from Russia.
However, according to British estimates, Russian long-range aviation forces have not carried out airstrikes against Ukraine for more than a month due to a lack of ammunition. The British Ministry of Defense announced on Friday that this was one of the longest phases without such attacks since the start of the war in February 2022.
“Russia almost certainly had to reduce the frequency of its attacks to replenish its scarce inventory of AS-23a Kodiak cruise missiles,” he said. Although Russia has other options for air strikes, long-range aviation forces (Russian: Dalnjaja awiazija) have so far been “the main method for carrying out long-range strikes”.
The British ministry warned that Russia would likely use all its long-range aircraft’s ammunition stocks to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in winter. Iranian “kamikaze drones” will likely continue to be used for this purpose.
The British Ministry of Defense has been publishing daily information on the course of the war since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Moscow accuses London of disinformation.