Russia launched a devastating bombardment against cities across Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least five people and casting hundreds of thousands into sporadic blackouts with a new mix of weapons that mostly evaded air defenses.
The strike was unusual in the number of expensive, high-end missiles used, raising the difficult-to-answer question of why Russian planners decided to deploy them in such numbers now.
Ukraine said it shot down 34 of the 81 missiles fired, a lower than usual proportion because the barrage included three classes of weapon against which it has no defense.