Russia launched the “largest drone attack” on Kyiv before Kyiv Day; 1 killed. As Kyiv prepared to celebrate its establishment on Sunday, local officials reported the largest drone assault since Russia’s war. Ukraine’s air defense shot down scores of drones, killing at least one person.
Senior Kyiv military official Serhii Popko said Russia launched the “most massive attack” on the city overnight Saturday with Iranian-made Shahed drones. Air defense shot down 40 drones during the five-hour attack.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said debris fell on a seven-story nonresidential structure and ignited a fire, killing a 41-year-old male and hospitalizing a 35-year-old woman.
Drone debris injured the Ukrainian Society of the Blind. Volodymyr Golubenko picked up his things Sunday morning. His son Mykola helped him find his father’s possessions amid the rubble and explained his office.
Mykola told his father that the right and left walls were destroyed.
Volodymyr Golubenko spent over 40 years here. But, because blind individuals come here to converse and encourage each other, he calls it home.
Since last year’s battle, finding a job is hard if you don’t have one. But Volodymyr said, “At least people chat here.”
Like Golubenko, many in his district first heard Shahid’s drones. Yana, 36, had three boys. The family hid overnight.
“Something exploded overhead. Yana said the children fled in fright.
Ukraine’s air force reported record-breaking Shahid drone attacks Saturday night. Air defense systems downed 52 of 54 drones.
Russia has regularly launched drone assaults against Ukraine, but most are shot down. This month, Ukraine claimed to have shot down some of Russia’s hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, which Putin has promoted as a competitive edge.
Governor Oleh Syniehubov of northern Kharkiv province said two shelling assaults killed a 61-year-old woman and a 60-year-old male.
Kyiv Day celebrates the city’s official establishment. Concerts, street fairs, exhibitions, and fireworks are typical celebrations. However, the city’s 1,541st anniversary celebrations were scaled back.
Ukrainian officials believed the drone assaults were timed.
“The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for the insecure Russians,” Ukraine’s main presidential assistant, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram.
On the messaging app, Popko said, “Today, the enemy decided to ‘congratulate’ the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVs (uncrewed aerial vehicles).
Local officials in southern Krasnodar reported air defense systems killed four drones approaching the Ilsky oil facility.
On Saturday, local officials say the Ukrainian military attacked southern Belgorod, Russia. Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed Sunday that the shelling wounded a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old male.
Since February 2022, drone strikes in Russian border regions have increased. For example, drones assaulted a Krasnodar oil plant for two days this month.
Ukrainian air defenses, aided by Western technology, have thwarted Russian drone and missile attacks.
Ukraine intercepted all Russian missiles targeting Kyiv in May. Six Russian Kinzhal aero-ballistic hypersonic missiles, touted by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a strategic advantage and among his country’s most advanced weapons, were used in the bombardment, which also targeted Ukraine.
Western air defense systems, especially American Patriot missiles, have protected Kyiv from the destruction seen along Ukraine’s main combat line in the east and south. Both sides use long-range weapons to attack other areas while ground warfare is stalemated along that front line.
Russia’s U.K. ambassador, Andrei Kelin, warned of a Ukraine escalation after Saturday night’s drone attacks. On Sunday, he warned the BBC that Western military supplies to Ukraine risked expanding the war to a “new dimension.” “The length of the conflict depends on the efforts in escalation of war that is being undertaken by NATO countries, especially by the U.K.,” he stated.
Kelin’s remarks are typical of Russian officials’ military boasting but contradict battlefield accounts of poorly equipped and trained Russian forces.
On Sunday, four people died in Friday’s missile strike on Dnipro, the regional capital of Dnipropetrovsk province. In addition, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak stated three missing people died. The attack on a psychiatric and veterinary clinic injured 32 people, including two children.
Comment Template