Murmansk-based bombers launched large-scale missile attack against Ukraine

The massive missile attack against multiple cities in Ukraine comes the morning after Kyiv published videos showing a drone attack supposedly sinking Russia’s Cesar Kunikov large landing ship off the coast of Crimea.

Reports are coming in from local authorities early morning of February 15 on missiles hitting 18 residential buildings, two schools, and a kindergarten in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine.

Ukrainian Air Force sent a warning to citizens at 00:49 local time about several Tu-95MS bombers flying out of Olenya Air Base heading towards launch positions around 4 am this morning.

Twitter (X) account Olga Honcharenko, known for following radio communications of Russian bombers, identified seven Tu-95MS bombers from Olenya, of which four returned to the airfield on the Kola Peninsula after 9 am and the three others flew to Engels Air Base in Saratov region. Also, two Tu-22M3 were on a mission tonight from Olenya, but it is not confirmed that those were launching missiles at Ukraine.

According to the Telegram channel of the Ukrainian Air Force, the Tu-95MS likely launched its missiles towards targets in the southern and eastern regions.

Russia attacked Ukraine also with Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles and Iskander-M ballistic missiles, the Kyiv Independent reports.

Olenya Air Base has this winter become the main airfield from where Russia’s strategic aviation forces take off when bombing Ukraine. The horrific scenes all around Ukraine on February 7 were not the first attack this winter. The Barents Observer reported about attacks led by planes from Olenya Air Base on May 18 and December 29 last year and on January 2, January 9, and February 6 this year. 

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Ukrainian Air Force says on Telegram that 26 missiles of various types were seen in the skies on the night to Thursday. Half of them, 13 in number, were shot down, including 8 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 cruise missiles likely launched from the Tu-95MS flying from the Olenya Air Base.