Russia launches ‘biggest’ kamikaze drone attack
Kyiv: Air raid sirens have sounded across Ukraine after Russia launched a fresh wave of drone and missile strikes.
Explosions were heard overnight in the capital, Kyiv, where the mayor said five people had been injured in the “biggest” kamikaze drone attack so far.
One person was killed in the attack on the southern Odesa region.
Ukraine’s Red Cross says its warehouse was hit.
It marks the fourth attack in eight days on Kyiv and comes just 24 hours before Russia celebrates Victory Day.
The annual holiday commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two, a conflict the Kremlin has baselessly tried to draw parallels
with since launching its fullscale invasion of Ukraine last year. After a lull in Russian attacks on civilian targets in recent months, which saw Kyiv go days without an attack, Moscow has intensified its air raids over the past week ahead of a widely expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.
The Ukrainian military said the latest Russian raids - which lasted for more than four hours and were launched shortly after midnight - saw Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones swarm across the country.
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said nearly 60 drones had been launched by Russia, describing it
as the “biggest” such attack so far. He added that all 36 drones had been destroyed over Kyiv, but five people had been injured by falling debris from downed drones.
The BBC has not been able to verify these numbers.
Emergency services responded after drone wreckage fell on a runway at Zhuliany international airport - one of the city’s two commercial airports - Kyiv’s military administration said.
And civilians were injured after drone debris hit a residential building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, the administration added. Elsewhere, in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, a warehouse was set ablaze after eight missiles were fired at targets by Russian bombers, Ukrainian officials said.
In a statement, Ukraine’s Red Cross said its warehouse with humanitarian aid was destroyed and all aid deliveries had to be suspended.
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Southern Command, later said a body of a man - a security guard - was pulled from the wreckage.
In a daily update, the Ukrainian military’s command said there had also been a wave of missile strikes on the Kherson, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions.