Everything you need to know about Russia's massive air strike on Ukraine

Russia launched one of the largest air assaults on Ukraine in months just days after a naval drone attacked a Russian oil tanker near the port city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. 

The Guardian reported four people were killed and a blood transfusion center was left in ruins during an airstrike that saw Ukraine attacked several times between August 5th and August 6th. The Associated Press later reported the death toll had risen to six. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Moscow used a guided bomb to target the blood transfusion center which led to the deaths of two and injured four others according to NBC News. 

“This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,” Zelensky wrote in a post to his official Twitter and Telegram pages, pairing the message with an image of the building engulfed in flames. 

Photo Credit: Twitter @ZelenskyyUa

“Russia's guided air bomb against a blood transfusion center in Ukraine,” Zelensky said in reference to the image he posted. “This evening, the Kupyansk community in the Kharkiv region. Dead and wounded are reported. My condolences! Our rescuers are extinguishing the fire.”

The Ukrainian President went on to deride the airstrike as a war crime and called the attackers “beasts,” adding: “Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.”

NBC News noted some houses and buildings near the clinic were damaged as well and added that it could not independently verify the claims made, reporting Russia has repeatedly denied that the country’s armed forces have ever targeted civilians. 

However, the airstrike could have been a lot worse for Ukraine considering the sheer scale of the attacks levied against the country. Newsweek reported Russia attacked as many as 70 times "in several waves" between August 5th and August 6th, quoting an operational update from Ukraine's Air Force.

Ukrainian officials didn’t disclose exactly how many cruise missiles and Shahed drones were fired at the country but they did provide figures on how many were downed by its air defense crews. 

A total of seventeen Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles were shot out of the sky after the first wave of attacks while thirteen out of twenty Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles were shot down according to figures from Ukrainian officials quoted by Newsweek. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons

Three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were also fired during the airstrike but officials didn’t say how many, or if any, were intercepted by Ukraine’s air defenses, though it was noted that 27 Shahed drones were downed in the attacks. 

On August 6th, Zelesnky revealed the true scale of all attacks over the week explaining in his nightly address that Russia launched 65 missiles of various kinds as well as 178 attack drones, 87 of which were Shahed drones according to a Reuters report.  

Zelensky also said advanced weapons systems like the American MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile and the German IRIS-T were “highly effective” and that they were also “yielding significant results” according to a translation of his comments by Reuters. 

The attacks may have been in retaliation for Kyiv’s naval drone strike on a Russian oil tanker on August 5th, an assault Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said would be avenged. 

“There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram according to a translation from PBS NewsHour. 

NBC News noted that Russia’s air assault came just as world leaders from 40 different countries were meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to discuss an end to a conflict that has turned the world upside down.