Today's attack is on verge of Russian capabilities — military expert Zgurets

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"Now the enemy has conducted a second massive attack, the previous powerful attack was on December 29. But, in my opinion, today's attack will not be inferior in intensity to the one that took place on December 29. Because today's attack began at around 10:00 pm on January 1, when the Shahed drones were launched, which, having reached the territory of Ukraine, were dispersed across the regions. Then, when the last Shaheds were being shot down, cruise missiles were launched at that time, I think from 16 Tu-95 bombers. These cruise missiles were divided into two groups. And when the missiles reached our regions around 7:00 am, the enemy launched the first batch of Kinzhals. And when the Kh-101s were being shot down, the second batch of Kinzhals was launched," the military expert commented.

According to him, concerning the Kinzhal missiles, a record was set for the number of Kinzhals launched in a single attack, involving a total of 11 or 12 aircraft equipped with these missiles. Presumably, there were approximately 10 Kinzhal launches, although the conclusive results are yet to be disclosed.

"The enemy is deliberately providing such a short period of time between the powerful attack on December 29 and January 2 to maximise the variations to ensure that our air defence is overloaded with different targets. Today's attack is close to the maximum of Russian capabilities, because when we talk about the number of Kinzhals, Tu-95 aircraft, it is actually close to the maximum in terms of launchers. In my opinion, the enemy had a number of goals and objectives, and some of these strikes were aimed at destroying air defence systems. On the other hand, the massive use of Kh-101 missiles is an attempt to strike critical, energy and military-industrial facilities, and these missiles are expensive for the enemy. I think that this attack is a logical continuation of the previous attack with the use of Kh-101, because the time to change the programme task was extremely short, and the enemy tried to strike again at the targets that it planned to destroy last time," said the expert.

Serhiy Zgurets pointed out that a distinctive feature of Russian cruise missiles is their inability to be re-targeted mid-air. The programming of the Kh-101 takes anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks. He believes that the missile attacks on December 29 and January 2 are components of a single planned combined attack. If Russia wants to use all available Kh-101 stockpiles, they theoretically have sufficient missiles for a single combined strike, after which they would need several months to accumulate a new stockpile.

• On the night of December 29, Russia launched several groups of Shahed drones that attacked Ukraine, and in the morning, the terrorists launched missiles. They hit high-rise buildings, educational institutions, a shopping centre and a maternity hospital.
• On January 2, a powerful Russian missile attack took place. Russian troops attacked Ukraine from strategic aviation. A series of explosions occurred in Kyiv and Kharkiv. The attack resulted in dead and wounded civilians and destroyed houses.