Russia unleashes largest drone attack on Kyiv

KYIV: Russia unleashed waves of air strikes on Kyiv overnight in what officials said appeared to be the largest drone atack on the city since the start of the war, as the Ukrainian capital prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its founding on Sunday.

Ukraine’s Air Force said it downed 52 out of the 54 Russia-launched drones, calling it a record atack with the Iranian-made ‘kamikaze’ drones. It was not immediately clear how many of the drones were shot over Kyiv.

In what also appears to be the first deadly atack on Kyiv in May and the 14th assault this month, falling debris killed a 41-year-old man, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The pre-dawn atacks came on the last Sunday of May when the capital celebrates Kyiv Day, the anniversary of its official founding 1,541 years ago.

The day is typically marked by street fairs, live concerts and special museum exhibitions - plans for which have been made this year too, but on a smaller scale.

“The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for the insecure Russians,” Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, said on his Telegram channel.

The Air Force said on Telegram that Russia had targeted military and critical infrastructure facilities in the central regions of Ukraine, and the Kyiv region in particular.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the information.

France condemned the atack “in the strongest terms,” adding that it had claimed the lives of at least two people and let several injured, in what it called a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

“These unacceptable acts constitute war crimes and cannot go unpunished,” the French foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.

With a Ukrainian counteroffensive looming 15 months into the war, Moscow has intensified air strikes ater a lull of nearly two months, targeting chiefly military site and supplies. Waves of atacks now come several times a week.

The Sunday atacks came ater Kyiv said that combat clashes eased around the besieged city of Bakhmut in southeastern Ukraine, the site of the war’s longest batle.

Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the atack was carried out in several waves, and air alerts lasted more than five hours.

“Today, the enemy decided to ‘congratulate’ the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVS (unmanned aerial vehicles),” Popko said on the Telegram messaging channel.

Several districts of Kyiv, by far the largest Ukrainian city with a population of around 3 million, suffered in the overnight atacks, officials said, including the historical Pecherskyi neighbourhood.