Air raid alerts were declared across Ukraine: what makes this situation unusual?

Early in the morning on Friday, December 20, an air raid alert was declared across Ukraine. The Russians launched a MiG-31K, with the takeoff occurring from a different airfield than usual. The air raid alert was lifted at 7:41 due to the MiG.

"Missile threat across the entire territory of Ukraine! MiG-31K takeoff has been recorded!" — warned the Ukrainian Air Forces at 6:39.

Updated 7:17 A series of explosions were heard in Kyiv, and air defense systems were activated. Fires broke out due to falling debris, and there are casualties. Explosions were also reported in Cherkasy.

Monitoring groups clarified that this time the MiG took off from the "Privolzhsky" airfield. It is located near the city of Astrakhan, on its northwestern outskirts, 16 km from Astrakhan Airport. It is known that as of 2020, the 116th Combat Application Training Center of the Russian Air Force was based at this airfield with MiG-29 aircraft. The distance between Astrakhan and Ukraine is about 1660 km.

It should be noted that the MiG-31K most often takes off from the "Savasleyka" airfield in Russia. This airfield is located near a village with the same name in the Kullabakskiy district of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

The MiG-31K is a carrier of the hypersonic missile X-47M2 "Dagger". The X-47M2 "Dagger" is an air-launched ballistic missile that can potentially carry a nuclear warhead. It was adopted into service by the Russian army in December 2017. Externally, it resembles the ballistic missiles from the Iskander operational-tactical missile system, and some experts believe that the "Dagger" was developed based on them. The missile's maximum speed is 4080 m/s or 14,688 km/h. This is why these hypersonic missiles represent very complex targets for air defense systems.

The missile can hit targets up to 2000 km away. That is why, when the MiG-31K missile carrier takes to the air, an alert is declared for all regions of Ukraine.

As reported by "Telegraph", early in the morning on Friday, December 20, around five o'clock, the Russians carried out a massive artillery bombardment of Kherson, causing fires to erupt in residential buildings and resulting in civilian casualties. The enemy also attempted to improve its position in the area of the Antonivskyi Bridge.