Ukraine War, 9 March 2023: Next Russian Air Strike

Early this morning, the VSRF and the VKS run a large-scale ballistic- and cruise-missile-strike on Ukraine.

First air raid alert was at 02.20hrs local time: this was valid for all of central Ukraine, from Zhytomir to Odesa, and from Sumy to Zaporizhzhya. at 02.40hrs, it was expanded to western Ukraine, too.

AFAIK, the first wave of missiles hit home around 03.11hrs, when explosions were reported from Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa. By 04.23, local authorities have confirmed that an energy infrastructure facility has been hit in the Odesa area. There followed strikes on infrastructure facilities in Kirovohrad, Vinnytsia, and Kryvyi Rih — where at least one Kh-22 hit an unknown installation.

By 03.53hrs, the Zaporizhzhya NPP was completely cut off from the power grid. The last that is known about its state is that two reactors were shut down and 18 diesel generators were powered up to cover the plant’s needs (they can last 10 days).

The second wave arrived around 04.28hrs, when air defences were activated in the Kyiv Oblast. The Vydubychi district of the city was hit by at least one ballistic missile fired from the Kursk Oblast (indeed: some are claiming a deployment of a several Kh-47 Kinzhal supersonic missiles); an energy facility was hit in the Holosilvsky District, and heating cut off from around 40% of the city (the water supply, reportedly, is working normally, but might be disrupted on the upper floors of high-rise buildings).

Not sure at what time, but in Dnipropetrovsk, one was killed and two wounded as energy facilities and industrial enterprises were hit by Kh-22s.

Around 06.00hrs, several Kalibr cruise missiles were reported as underway along the border to Moldova, before turning north towards Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk. Around the same time, also a new wave of missiles approaching Odesa was reported, and then a Kh-22 hit something in Kryvyi Rih.

Zhitomir received at least two severe blows: all the electricity, water, and heating were disabled.

In the Zolochiv District of the Lviv Oblast, four people were killed by a missile that crashed into a residential area.

Kharkiv — which just recovered its network of street-lights, the last evening— was heavily hit, too: up to 15 missiles were fired at the city, of which up to 11 might have scored hits, leaving Kharkiv out of water and electricity.

By 06.37hrs, emergency power shut-downs were implemented in much of Ukraine and 15 trains were reported as delayed because of the air strike (5 for more than 1 hour, 10 for more than 30 minutes).

As of that time, Ukrainians claimed to have shot down 19 targets, including 18 missiles and 1 UAV. Nine missiles were shot down over Mykolaiv Oblast, 6 over Odesa, 2 over Kherson, and at least this one over Kyiv. Accordingly, this time the Russians came with Shaheds first, then followed up foremost with Kh-22s, and relatively few Kh-101s and Kh-59s. Subsequently, it became known that in Dnipropetrovsk, air defences claimed 7 missiles as shot down.

All-clear in the west was issued at 06.46, and all clear in southern, central, and northern oblasts between 07.34 and 07.56 hrs. By then, Kyiv reported the involvement of

• 15 Tu-95 bombers
• 7 Tu-22 bombers (all over the Sea of Azov)
• 3 warships of the Russian Navy
• and a total of 81 cruise missiles and 8 UAVs.

The latter two categories should have included:

• 28 Kh-101 and Kh-555 missiles
• 20 Kalibrs
• 6 Kh-22s
• 6 Kh-47 Kinzhals
• 8 Kh-31Ps
• 6 Kh-59s
• 13 S-300 SAMs fired in ballistic mode.

Notable is the deployment of 6 Kh-47s: so far, the Russians deployed perhaps three or four of these over 13 months (that’s at least confirmed cases: there are claims for about a dozen of releases), of which at least one malfunctioned. Despite quite some spending for this project, the assembly of Kh-47s remained very limited, and RUMINT has it that only about a dozen have been made operational by now.

As of 09.00hrs this morning, the number of Ukrainian claims increased to 34 cruise missiles (apparently including 8 Kh-31Ps and Kh-59s) - one of these over the Chernihiv area - and 4 Shaheds shot down.

In turn, three TPPs were confirmed as damaged.

Mind: related information is still coming in, so might update this one during the day.