Ukraine intercepts Russia’s latest missile barrage, putting a damper on Putin’s “Victory Day” parade

Kyiv — Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital city again overnight, with loud explosions waking up the city’s residents around 5:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday. A barrage of 15 Russian cruise missiles took aim at the capital, but every single one of them was shot down by Ukraine’s air defenses, according to the country’s military.

The interception of yet another attack on Kyiv was likely to put a further damper on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “Victory Day” parade in Moscow. The annual flexing of military muscle on Moscow’s Red Square, which commemorates the then-Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, took on added significance this year as Russia continued its invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

In his Victory Day speech, Putin claimed it was now Russia under attack from the West, claiming that “a real war has once again been unleashed against our motherland.”

After days of his rockets and explosive drones being shot down over Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities — with the odd one slipping through the net to claim more civilian lives — Putin vowed to “protect” the people of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, much of which his forces have occupied, and to “ensure our own security.”

“The future of our people depends on you,” the Russian leader said, addressing troops fighting in what he has stubbornly continued to refer to as a “special military operation.”

Surveying rows of young men who haven’t yet been sent to the slaughter on the battlefields of Ukraine, Putin’s pleased expression belied the grim reality of his war on Ukraine.

While his forces did roll cruise missiles and other big weapons through Red Square as they do every year for Victory Day, it was a smaller display than in previous years, as a significant amount of Russia’s firepower is deployed further west, in and around Ukraine.

But Moscow’s latest attempt to rain missiles down across Ukraine overnight yet again fell short. Ukraine’s air force said 23 of the 25 cruise missiles fired by Russia were intercepted, the majority of them once again aimed at the capital itself.

It came a day after a swarm of dozens of explosive drones filled the night sky. Those, too, were shot down, but the falling debris damaged buildings and wounded a few people on the ground in Kyiv.

It was largest drone attack since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian officials said, and the fifth time Russia had tried to attack the capital this month alone.

In another blow to Putin’s assault, CBS News has learned that the Patriot missile defense system supplied by the U.S. successfully downed a Russian hypersonic missile over Kyiv a couple days ago, intercepting one of Russia’s most advanced weapons for the first time.