Ukraine Army Successfully Destroys 7-Of-8 Missiles Launched By Russia Toward Oblast

The Air Defense of Ukraine on Tuesday night successfully downed seven of eight missiles launched by the Russian military, authorities said.

Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson of the Air Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said the Russian army fired the missiles from the Caspian Sea around 5 p.m. Tuesday, local time. The missiles were reportedly launched in the direction of the central, southern and western oblasts.

"On 2 August at approximately 17:00 the occupiers launched a missile attack from the Caspian Sea using strategic bombers Tu-95 (Tu-160),” Ihnat said in a video published on the Air Force Command’s Facebook page. “In total eight cruise missiles of the X-101 (X-555) type were launched in the direction of the central, southern and western oblasts of Ukraine.”

As per the post, the Ukrainian army destroyed seven of the eight missiles, six of which were hit by anti-aircraft missile forces and another downed by a fighter pilot. However, one of the missiles hit the Lviv Oblast.

The missile hit a military unit and caused two explosions in the Chervonohrad district. As of writing, it was still unclear how many people died in the missile attack. It was also unclear how many structures were destroyed, according to a Telegram post by Maksym Kozytskyi, the head of Lviv Regional Military Administration.

The missile attacks come six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in February, a move he called a “special military operation.” Since then, a total of 5,327 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, 3,148 of whom died in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The war has also injured a total of 7,257 civilians, according to estimates from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

As of Tuesday, the Russian military took over several regions in Ukraine, including Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk. The Russian military is now focusing its efforts on occupying Donetsk, which together with Luhansk makes up the entire Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on the remaining residents in Donetsk to evacuate as the country’s military forces work to defend the region from the Russians.