Ukraine says it shot down 61 of 71 missiles Russia fired in latest attacks

KYIV (Reuters) – Russia launched 71 cruise missiles at Ukraine on Friday and 61 of them were shot down, Ukraine’s air force said.

“As of 11:30 a.m., the enemy had launched 71 X-101, X-555 and Kalibr missiles. The air defence forces, Air Force and other components of the Ukrainian Defence Forces destroyed 61 enemy cruise missiles,” it said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier on Friday that Russia had fired more than 50 missiles at Ukraine and most of them were shot down.

“Russia cannot accept failures and therefore continues to terrorise the (Ukrainian) population. Another attempt (on Friday) to destroy the Ukrainian energy system and deprive Ukrainians of light, heat, and water,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

The Air Force said Russia had used eight Tu-95MS strategic bombers, and that they had fired X-101 and X-555 missiles from the Caspian Sea and the city of Volgodonsk in Russia.

Russian forces also launched Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea, it said.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)