Ukraine claims to shoot down 13 Russian cruise missiles overnight

Russia-Ukraine war: Russia launched waves of aerial attacks with crusie missiles and attack drones over the winter.

Ukraine said Friday it had downed an entire barrage of 13 cruise missiles fired by Russian forces overnight targeting an airfield in the west of the country.

A storehouse is damaged after a nightly Russian rocket attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Officials say Russian forces have fired cruise missiles at the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight and shelling has destroyed homes in the eastern Donetsk region, killing at least six people and injuring more than a dozen others. (AP Photo/Nina Lyashonok)(AP)

"Thirteen of the occupiers' cruise missiles were destroyed on June 23.... This time the attack was aimed at a military airfield in the Khmelnytskyi region," the Ukrainian air force said on social media.

Russia launched waves of aerial attacks with crusie missiles and attack drones over the winter, prompting Kyiv to appeal to its Western allies to bolster its air defence systems.

"The launches were carried out around midnight from the Caspian Sea from four Tu-95MS bombers," the air force statement said.

The mayor of Khmelnytskyi Oleksandr Symchyshyn reported explosions in the town with a pre-war population of around 275,000 and praised Ukrainian air defence systems.

Ukraine also said that it had shot down a Russian reconnaissance drone overnight.