On the night of June 2, the Russian Federation launched a massive attack on Ukraine, using a wide arsenal of strike drones and missiles of various types from the air, sea, and land. The Air Force reported that the main targets of the attack were Kyiv, as well as Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava region, and other areas of the country.
This is reported by Finway
Scale of the Air Attack and Air Defense Results
According to the Air Force Command, radio-technical troops recorded 729 air attack means, including 73 missiles and 656 drones of various types. In particular, Russia used:
- 8 anti-ship missiles 3M22 “Zircon” (from occupied Crimea and Kursk region);
- 33 ballistic missiles “Iskander-M” (from Bryansk, Kursk, Rostov regions and occupied Crimea);
- 27 cruise missiles X-101 (from Vologda region);
- 5 cruise missiles “Caliber” (from the Caspian Sea area);
- 656 strike drones of types “Shahed”, “Gerbera”, “Italmas”, loitering munitions “Banderole”, imitation drones “Parody” (from the territories of Bryansk, Kursk, Oryol regions, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, as well as from the occupied Gvardeyskoye and Chayka in Crimea).
The air defense forces managed to destroy 642 targets, including 602 drones of various types and 40 missiles, specifically: 11 ballistic missiles “Iskander-M”, 26 cruise missiles X-101, and 3 cruise missiles “Caliber”.
“As of 08:30, 30 ballistic, 3 cruise missiles, and 33 strike UAVs were recorded hitting 38 locations, as well as the fall of downed (debris) UAVs at 15 locations,” the report states.
Consequences of the Shelling and Qualification of Russia’s Actions
According to the Kyiv city authorities, as a result of the night attack, 58 people were injured, including two children, and four people were killed. In Dnipro, seven fatalities have been reported. Additionally, destruction and damage have been recorded in many regions of Ukraine.
Russian troops regularly use a wide range of weapons to attack Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure across all regions of the state. Ukrainian authorities and international organizations qualify these strikes as war crimes of the Russian Federation, emphasizing their deliberate nature.
The shelling of vital infrastructure, healthcare systems, electricity, and water supply is carried out with the aim of depriving the civilian population of necessary living conditions, which, according to legal experts and genocide researchers, has signs of genocidal actions. Among such actions are also recorded:
- Declarations of intent to destroy Ukrainians, public calls for this;
- Targeted attacks on vital infrastructure;
- Persecution and destruction of Ukrainians with a pro-Ukrainian stance in occupied territories;
- Extermination of the intelligentsia, artists, teachers – carriers of Ukrainian culture;
- Implementation of an education system in occupied territories to change the identity of children;
- Deportation of children without parents to Russia to change their identity;
- Destruction of Ukrainian books, theft of historical artifacts.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, defines genocide as acts aimed at the total or partial destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. To date, 149 countries that are parties to the Convention are obliged to prevent acts of genocide and punish them in both wartime and peacetime.
At the same time, the leadership of Russia denies the targeting of attacks on civilian infrastructure and the deaths of civilians, despite numerous evidence of the destruction of hospitals, schools, kindergartens, energy facilities, and water supply systems on the territory of Ukraine.