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Tu-95 bombers are said to have launched a large-scale Kh-101 missile attack on Ukraine as recently as last week.

Shatsky was responsible for modernising Russia's Kh-59 and Kh-69 cruise missiles that have caused so much destruction and loss of life in Ukraine.

The air force added that Russia also launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile and a Kh-31 air-to-surface missile.

Ungainly though the tower may have been, the sight of its red-and-white upper mast plunging spearlike to the ground after a strike Monday by a Russian Kh-59 missile was a stinging affront to many in this city of 1.2 million people, only 25 miles from the Russian frontier.

Russia commonly uses the bomber to fire Kh-22 cruise missiles at Ukrainian targets from inside its own airspace.