Russian missile hits Ukraine aeronautics firm: Zelensky

KYIV: A Russian missile strike on Saturday hit a facility of the Ukrainian aeronautics group Motor Sich, one of several companies requisitioned by the government since Moscow’s invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Today there was another Russian missile attack against our country. They hit Motor Sich” and the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine, around 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of Kyiv, Zelensky said in his evening address.

Motor Sich, which makes plane and helicopter engines and other components, was among the “strategic” firms taken over by Ukraine’s defence ministry last November.

Motor Sich’s headquarters are in the partially Russian-controlled region of Zaporizhzhia in southeast Ukraine.

It was unclear if the Russian strikes had hit the Motor Sich headquarters.

Its governor said earlier Saturday that a Russian strike had caused a fire at a site outside the city.

Zelensky said the strikes included Russia’s hypersonic Kinzhal weapons, which are designed to elude air-defence systems, though he added that “some of the missiles were shot down”.

The Khmelnytskyi region, hundreds of kilometres from the front lines of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, has been regularly targeted by Russian strikes. The region is home to a major Ukrainian airbase.