Russians preparing to launch more missile attacks – army spox

That’s according to the spokesperson for Operational Command South Natalia Humeniuk, who spoke on the air of the national telethon, Ukrinform reports.

"The general situation remains rather tense, because the enemy is looking for ways to counter our defenses in conditions where we remain quite effective, so they are trying to increase their efficiency in other directions. They don’t stop shelling Chaykivka and Kutsiurub communities in order to divert the attention of our Defense Forces to other zones. Also yesterday, the enemy launched a point missile attack, employing tactical aviation from the Black Sea area in Mykolaiv region. A Kh-59 type missile was launched, and it is quite likely that this was a combat reconnaissance attempt to test the readiness of air defense systems. We can see that the general pause that the enemy endures between massive missile attacks is already quite powerful and balanced, and this may indicate the preparation of subsequent attacks, but even in these intervals such point attacks are also a sign of enemy terrorism. They use missile strikes in different directions, detecting air defense systems and trying to lay future routes for such strikes," Humeniuk said.

According to her, the enemy has realized that the loss of warplanes in the south is quite real, therefore, approaches from the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, trying to find out the operational range that is more or less acceptable for them.

Commenting on the shelling of Kherson region the day before, Humeniuk noted that the enemy continues to exert pressure on the people of Kherson, and not only on the residents of the regional center, but on the region as a whole, in particular, its coastal settlements. The Russian aviation is not as active as before, but the enemy is trying to inflict painful blows on civil infrastructure, targeting crowded locations and specialized vehicles of the State Emergency Service and the police.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on February 2, Humeniuk reported that the Russians were suffering heavy losses in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia region. On average, each enemy assault group loses about 70% of its personnel during engagements with the Ukrainian Defense Forces.