Ukraine's Forces Suffer 'One of Their Worst Days' in War

Ukraine's air defenses are in doubt following an avalanche of largely successful Russian missile and drone attacks.

The Ukrainian military had one of its "worst days of the entire war" after 60 percent of Russian air attacks slipped by defenses on Monday, according to a report from the Kyiv Post.

The devastating assault followed major Russian airstrikes on December 29 and January 2, when Ukrainian officials claimed to have thwarted up to 81 percent of the barrage.

"Ukrainians spent this morning in shelters," the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter. "Russian terror must be stopped. Help Ukraine to stop it!"

A subsequent post from the defense ministry said that Ukraine had shot down 18 Russian Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles and eight Iranian-made "Shahed" kamikaze drones. It claimed that the morning attacks consisted of at least 59 drone and missile strikes.

A Telegram post from General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of Ukraine's military, specified that 51 of the attacks were executed with missiles, including four using hypersonic "Kinzhals."

The attacks reportedly killed at least four people and wounded over 30 others, although the full extent of the damage and casualties was unclear as of Monday afternoon.

At least one of the casualties occurred after Russian missiles hit a shopping center and other buildings in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Agence France-Presse.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Colonel Yurii Ihnat blamed Russia's success on a recent slowing of military aid from Western allies, suggesting that Ukraine would have been able to defend its territory more effectively if it had more U.S.-made Patriot anti-aircraft missiles.

"One has to understand these [Russian] missiles fly in a ballistic trajectory, and that the systems that are capable of intercepting them are, for example, the Patriot," Ihnat said in a statement, according to the Kyiv Post. "That's why we have that result today."

"We can't cover the entire territory of Ukraine with air defense systems so that no missile ever gets through," he added. "We defend areas locally, on probable approach routes and where we have troops and things like that."

Ukraine has recently seen foreign aid slow to a snail's pace, with over $110 billion in combined aid from the U.S. and the European Union (EU) recently held up due to partisan conflict in Congress and an EU veto by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Monday.

Russia's Ministry of Defense touted the success of what it says was an attack on Kyiv's "military-industrial complex," describing it in a statement as a high-precision "group strike," according to Russian state media outlet RT.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.