According to UK Defence Intelligence, the most recent attack on Russian infrastructure in occupied Crimea's Saky airfield and Sevastopol shows that Russia's air defence is unable to keep important locations protected.

"This once again demonstrates the ineffectiveness of Russian air defences in protecting key locations, despite their enhanced preparedness. The scale of the Russian response is likely indicative of the level of success achieved by the Ukrainian armed forces’ actions of 4 January 2024,"  UK Defence Intelligence stated in its review from 9 January.

The report specified that these attacks probably "degraded the awareness and coverage of Russian air defences over the Crimean region".

According to UK Defence Intelligence, Russia responded to this by launching a string of missile attacks on Ukraine on 8 January, targeting the cities of Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia. 

The Russian occupiers fired 59 aerial weapons on Ukraine – missiles of various types and Shahed attack drones; 18 missiles and all 8 Shaheds were shot down.

The Russians attacked critical infrastructure, industrial, civilian and military facilities.

Russian forces targeted different regions of Ukraine. In particular, missiles flying on a ballistic trajectory headed towards Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnytskyi oblasts.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu condemned the attack.