The National Police of Ukraine has published a video depicting the immediate aftermath of the September 21 Russian cruise missile strike on the city of Cherkasy in central Ukraine.
The clip is blurry, but it appears to show firefighters racing through a devastated area with burning rubble and damaged structures. Rescue personnel are also seen assisting assault survivors in leaving the area of impact.
Patrol police responded to the situation at first. According to the National Police, the rescue effort is still underway, with medical staff and rescuers actively participating.
Ten people were hurt when a rocket landed in the middle of Cherkasy, destroying a hotel and setting fire to market booths in the process.
Efforts to clear the debris will likely continue into the night, as Mayor of Cherkasy Anatolii Bondarenko informed Radio Free Europe after the attack that there may be individuals still trapped under the wreckage.
In what was perhaps the largest missile strike on Ukraine by Kremlin troops in recent months, Russia launched numerous rounds of cruise missiles against the nation in the early hours of September 21. In only a few short minutes, the intruders launched a barrage of missiles that exploded over Lviv, Rivne, and Cherkasy oblasts, as well as Kyiv and a number of other oblasts, triggering air defense systems.
Occupants used ten Tu-95MS strategic aviation aircraft to fire X-101/X-555 missiles from a point west of Engels. Out of a total of 43 Russian missiles, Ukrainian air defenses shot down 36 of them.
Ukrainian Air Force Command Spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat described the Sept. 21 huge missile strike as strong but said the country’s air defense system had performed quite well.
According to Ihnat, who made his remarks on Ukrainian state TV, “the enemy attacked with a significant geographic scope,” adding that the adversaries used a wide range of strategies, veered in unexpected directions, and deployed several weapons.
We tracked missiles as they traveled across the country, from the east to the west and back to the center. Ihnat said that this time around, missiles did indeed reach a wide variety of places, but that “our air defense system responded quite effectively.”
