Ukrainian F-16 fighter jets intercept Russian missiles, apparently the first

Kiev, Ukraine — Russia fired dozens of missiles and drones into Ukraine for the second straight day on Tuesday, several of which were shot down by Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets before reaching their targets, according to the Ukrainian president.

The attack killed at least five people, destroyed a hotel, homes and residential buildings, and critical infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions. Kiev and other cities suffered power outages in the stifling heat.

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As is often the case in statements after Russian bombings, the Ukrainian military listed the Russian regions and occupied territories where the weapons were fired. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials have repeatedly called for the U.S. to lift the restrictions and allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia to hit the military infrastructure responsible for the war.

″(The allies) are not trying to talk to me about it. But I keep raising this topic. In general, that’s it. The Olympics are over, but the ping-pong continues,” Zelenskyy said.

In his remarks about Ukraine using an F-16 to shoot down a missile for the first time, Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainian supporters for deploying the F-16s but said there were too few planes and too few pilots trained to fly them.

Among the Russian regions cited as the source of Tuesday’s attack was Kursk, where the head of Ukraine’s military said his forces had gained control of nearly 500 square miles since their surprise invasion three weeks ago. That’s about the size of Los Angeles.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi also said Ukraine captured 594 Russian prisoners in the operation, which he said was aimed at drawing the Russian army away from fighting in Ukraine. His claims could not be independently confirmed.

The Kursk operation, the largest invasion of Russia since World War II, has forced some 130,000 residents to flee their homes. Russia has sent reinforcements to the region, but it was unclear to what extent the moves would weaken Russian positions on Ukrainian territory.

Fighting in the region has raised concerns about dangers to the Kursk nuclear power plant, said International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, who visited the plant on Tuesday. He said in a message on X that the situation was “serious” and called any attack on a nuclear power plant unacceptable.

“There is now a danger of a nuclear incident here,” Grossi said. “Today I was told about several cases of drone attacks on the territory, on the facilities of the plant. At the plant I saw traces of these attacks.”

But the plant is now operating “in a mode very close to normal,” he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Ukraine suffered heavy losses in Kursk — some 6,600 soldiers killed or wounded — and that more than 70 tanks were destroyed, along with dozens of armored vehicles. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian military chief’s claim of territorial control came hours after the second consecutive series of air and missile strikes from Russia.

The strikes killed five people and wounded 16. According to Zelenskyy, 81 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles were fired.

In the Kiev region, which was hit by blackouts after Monday’s attack on power facilities across the country, five air raid sirens were sounded overnight. The regional government said air defenses destroyed all drones and missiles, but falling debris sparked wildfires.

After Monday’s fire from more than 100 missiles and a similar number of drones in Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that “the energy infrastructure has once again become a target of Russian terrorists.” He urged Ukraine’s allies to supply the country with long-range weapons and permission to use them on targets in Russia.

President Joe Biden called Monday’s Russian attack on energy infrastructure “outrageous” and said he had “reprioritized U.S. exports of air defense equipment to send them to Ukraine first.” He also said the U.S. was “sending energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy grid.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said the strikes used “long-range precision air and naval weapons and drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities that support the operation of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex. All designated targets were hit.”

Russian officials reported that four Ukrainian missiles were shot down over the Kursk region.

Jim Heintz, an Associated Press editor in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.