Russia unleashed its latest nighttime drone strike on Ukraine, attacking the capital Kiev in an assault that lasted until noon and wounding at least one person, city officials said Saturday.
Debris from downed drones struck six city districts, injuring a police officer, damaging residential buildings and starting fires, military city administrator Serhiy Popko said.
“One more night. Another air raid siren. Another drone strike. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation attacked Kiev again according to their old and familiar tactics,” Popko wrote on social media.
All drones aimed at Kiev had been shot down, he said.
Ukrainian energy supplier DTEK said a high-voltage line supplying the capital and two distribution networks in the Kiev region had been damaged.
DTEK said in a statement that electricity had been largely restored and repairs were underway.
Reuters correspondents reported hearing explosions in and around the city during an air raid that lasted more than five hours. One drone was seen flying low over the city amid the noise of automatic weapons fire.
The Ukrainian military said on Saturday that air defenses had destroyed 39 of 71 Russian drones launched, and another 21 had been “locatively lost”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said strikes have also been reported in the central regions of Poltava and northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv.
“This year we have faced the threat of ‘Shahed’ drones almost every night – sometimes in the morning and even during the day,” he wrote on social media, referring to the Iranian-made attack drones used by Russia.
Russian forces have carried out regular airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the front lines of the war that began when Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022.
Kiev’s military said on Friday that Moscow’s armed forces had launched more than 2,000 drones at civilian and military targets across Ukraine in October alone.
Russia has denied targeting civilians and said energy facilities are legitimate targets if they are part of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.
Published on:
November 3, 2024
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