Ukraine repels large Russian aerial assault on Kyiv region

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials said air defenses shot down 20 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia mostly at the Kyiv region early Thursday, but wreckage fell on four districts of the capital, wounding two people and destroying several homes.

The attack came hours after NATO wrapped up its annual summit with fresh pledges of weapons and ammunition and longer-term security guarantees but no clear path for Ukraine to join the alliance. Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed Thursday that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is unacceptable for Moscow.

“It would raise the threat for Russia’s security,” Putin said in televised remarks. “It wouldn’t increase Ukraine’s own security, and, more broadly, would make the world more vulnerable and lead to more tensions on the international arena.”

On Thursday, the Pentagon said cluster munitions provided by the

United States have arrived in Ukraine.

The munitions, which are bombs that open in the air and release scores of bomblets, are banned by many countries because of their track record for causing civilian casualties. The U.S. sees them as a way to get Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help its forces push through Russian front lines.

U.S. leaders debated the thorny issue for months, before President Joe Biden made the final decision last week.

The latest barrage by the Kremlin’s forces began shortly after midnight, and explosions shook different parts of the city. Two people were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, authorities said.

In the capital, rescuers extinguished a fire in a 16-story building, as well as in a nonresidential building, the Interior Ministry said. Debris also smashed into the frontage of a 25-story apartment building, it said.

Meanwhile, a senior officer leading Russian forces against Kyiv’s recent counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, was reportedly killed Tuesday by a Ukrainian missile strike.

Tsokov died when the Ukrainian military struck the city of Berdyansk with U.K.-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, according to retired Gen. Andrei Gurulev, who currently serves as a lawmaker.

Russia’s Defense Ministry hasn’t reported Tsokov’s death.

At least three civilians were killed and 38 more sustained injuries in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office reported on Thursday morning.

In the partially occupied Donetsk region, Russian forces targeted 13 cities and villages under Ukrainian control with aviation, missiles and heavy artillery.

Speaking to reporters in televised remarks from Moscow, Putin reaffirmed that supplies of Western weapons to Ukraine wouldn’t change the course of the conflict.

He said that Western missiles “do inflict some damage but nothing critical is happening” for the Russian forces.