Home › Security › Why did missiles hit Kyiv as Luhansk fell?
Why did missiles hit Kyiv as Luhansk fell?
Summary
An analysis of the missile strikes and the battlefield shifts in Luhansk Oblast in the days up to 26 June 2022.
What did the weekend of 26 June 2022 reveal about the shape of the war? Two things stood out: missile strikes reaching deep into Ukraine, and a steady loss of ground in Luhansk Oblast.
Strikes far from the front
On 26 June 2022, several Russian cruise missiles struck Kyiv, killing one civilian and injuring four others, according to Ukraine's Prosecutor General. Some of the missiles were launched from Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea, meaning the launch points lay far from the Ukrainian capital.
The same day, a missile strike killed a civilian and destroyed a strategic bridge in Cherkasy Oblast. The bridge connected western Ukraine with the eastern battlefields, so the damage fell on a link between the country's west and the fighting in the east.
The previous day, 25 June 2022, 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. Taken together, the strikes of 25 and 26 June came from several directions: Belarusian airspace and, in the case of Kyiv, bombers over the Caspian.
Luhansk Oblast slips away
On the ground, the pressure was concentrated in Luhansk Oblast. On 24 June 2022, the oblast's governor, Serhiy Haidai, announced that Ukrainian forces would withdraw from Sievierodonetsk amid the advance of Russian and pro-Russian forces. The battle for the city had been part of the wider fight for the Donbas.
The same day, Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces had captured Hirske, south of Lysychansk. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said his forces had also taken the town of Zolote.
On 25 June 2022, the mayor of Sieverodonetsk announced that Russian forces had fully occupied the city. Pro-Russian forces said they had entered Lysychansk, the last major city in Luhansk Oblast still held by Ukrainian forces, and that street-to-street fighting was under way.
Occupied territory also unsettled
Behind Russian lines, a Russian-appointed senior official for the Kherson youth department was killed on 24 June 2022 by a car bomb in Kherson, in an apparent assassination.
What the pattern suggests
The sequence is clear in outline. As Ukrainian forces gave up Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk came under attack, missiles hit targets across the country, including the capital and a bridge tied to the east–west connection. Whether the strikes were coordinated with the offensive was not stated in the reports of the time, and the reported details do not support such a conclusion. What they do show is a war being fought at two levels at once: a grinding ground advance in Luhansk Oblast and long-range fire reaching Kyiv, Cherkasy Oblast, Zhytomyr and western Ukraine.
