What 24 November 2022 showed about Ukraine's security

What did the security picture look like on 24 November 2022? It was defined by attacks on civilians and infrastructure, and by a scramble to strengthen air defence.

On that day, Russian Armed Forces bombarded Kherson, killing at least 15 people and injuring 35 others. The shelling was part of the southern campaign and came a day after a fresh wave of missile strikes across the country.

The strikes of 23 November

On 23 November 2022, at least six civilians were killed in the latest missile strikes. Three of them died in an apartment block in Vyshhorod, Kyiv Oblast, where 15 other people were injured. Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that 21 of the 31 missiles targeting the capital had been intercepted before reaching their targets.

The effects spread beyond the places that were hit. Widespread blackouts were reported in western Ukraine as Russian forces launched another wave of cruise missiles, and Lviv was without power. Moldova also reported massive power outages, although missiles had not directly hit the country.

Air defence and political responses

The pressure on air defence was visible in the diplomacy of the same days. On 22 November 2022, Germany said it would deploy Patriot surface-to-air missile systems on the Poland–Ukraine border to protect Polish airspace, and Poland's defence minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said he had accepted the proposal.

That offer followed the explosion in Przewodów, a village near the border, on 15 November 2022, which killed two people. Ukraine initially accused Russia of striking Poland, while the United States said the missile was likely an air defence missile fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile. Poland's prosecutor's office later confirmed, in September 2023, that an out-of-control Ukrainian S-300 missile had caused the blast.

On 23 November 2022, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced that the United Kingdom would send three Sea King helicopters to the Ukrainian Air Force as part of a new £50 million support package. The same day, the European Parliament designated Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, citing strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine, including critical infrastructure, hospitals, schools and bomb shelters.

What the sequence showed

Taken together, the reports from 22 to 24 November 2022 show attacks reaching both the front-line south and cities far from it. Kyiv's interception figures show defences stopping most incoming missiles, yet strikes still caused deaths and left parts of western Ukraine without electricity. The allied responses of those days, from Patriot deployments on the Polish border to British equipment and a political declaration in Strasbourg, were aimed at that pressure.