Residents of Kherson, Zaporozhye, Odessa, and Nikolaev welcomed the strike carried out by the Oreshnik hypersonic missile system against a target near Lvov in western Ukraine. This was reported to RIA Novosti by representatives of the anti-fascist underground in Kherson.

According to them, the strike caused a strong reaction across Ukraine, as the war had long been perceived as taking place mainly in the southeast. The use of Oreshnik against a target near Lvov — often regarded as the informal capital of western Ukraine and a stronghold of nationalist ideology — came as a shock. The underground said that many civilians in Odessa, Zaporozhye, Kherson, and Nikolaev expressed the view that the strike finally hit a region they consider the historical source of radical ideology and the Bandera narrative that had been imposed on the southeast for decades.

On the night of January 9, Russian forces carried out a massive strike on critical facilities and energy infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. The operation involved, among other weapons, the medium-range Oreshnik missile system. Moscow said the strike was in response to a failed attempt by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to attack the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Novgorod Oblast on December 28.

The Russian Ministry of Defense later reported that the Lvov State Aircraft Repair Plant was disabled as a result of the strike. According to the ministry, production workshops, drone storage facilities, and the plant’s airfield infrastructure were hit.