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Missiles over Kyiv as Luhansk front shifted
Summary
A look back at 26 June 2022, when Russian cruise missiles struck Kyiv and a bridge in Cherkasy Oblast while fighting in Luhansk Oblast intensified.
What did the Russian missile salvos of 26 June 2022 reveal about the reach of the war? They showed that it extended well beyond the eastern front, to the capital and to central Ukraine.
On that day, several Russian cruise missiles struck Kyiv. Ukraine's Prosecutor General said one civilian was killed and four others were injured. Some of the missiles were launched from Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea.
The strike was not the only one. A missile attack in Cherkasy Oblast killed a civilian and destroyed a strategic bridge connecting western Ukraine with the eastern battlefields.
A salvo that began a day earlier
The attacks followed a wider barrage on 25 June 2022, when Russia launched dozens of cruise missiles at targets in several Ukrainian cities, including Yavoriv, Zhytomyr and Desna. At least 20 of those missiles were fired from Belarusian airspace.
The eastern front
The strikes came as Russian forces pressed their offensive in Luhansk Oblast. The Battle of Sievierodonetsk was part of the wider battle of Donbas. On 24 June 2022, the governor of Luhansk Oblast, Serhiy Haidai, announced that Ukrainian forces would withdraw from Sievierodonetsk as Russian and pro-Russian forces advanced. The next day, 25 June 2022, the mayor said Russian forces had fully occupied the city.
On 25 June 2022, pro-Russian forces also said they had entered Lysychansk, the last major city still held by Ukrainian forces in Luhansk Oblast, and that street-to-street fighting was underway. A day earlier, Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces had captured Hirske, south of Lysychansk. The Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said his forces had taken the town of Zolote.
Occupied territory
The violence also reached territory under Russian control. On 24 June 2022, a Russian-appointed senior official for the Kherson youth department was killed by a car bomb in Kherson, in an apparent assassination.
Taken together, the reports from 24 to 26 June 2022 describe a war fought on several levels: a ground advance in Luhansk Oblast, long-range missile strikes on cities and infrastructure, and attacks inside occupied areas. The destruction of the bridge in Cherkasy Oblast was notable for the link it had provided between western Ukraine and the eastern battlefields.
