Kyiv repels more air strikes
KYIV: Kyiv repelled another large volley of overnight air strikes, officials said yesterday, as the Ukrainian capital was still picking up the pieces from the biggest drone attack to hit it since Russia’s invasion began.
Local air defences managed to fend off more than 40 drones and cruise missiles, and there were no casualties, authorities said.
Kyiv had been mostly spared since the beginning of the year, but this month its residents have been forced to grapple with almost nightly air raid sirens and explosions.
The attack on the city overnight on Saturday was the largest since the invasion in February last year, Ukraine said.
On Sunday night, Kyiv residents again faced threats from the sky.
“Only 18 hours have passed since the most massive UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] attack on Kyiv, and the enemy attacked the capital again,” the city’s military administration said.
“This is already the 15th air attack since the beginning of May!”
The administration said the attack used drones and cruise missiles.
It added that “more than 40 air targets were detected and destroyed by the forces and means of our air defence”.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said it was “another difficult night for the capital”, but added there was no damage and no casualties reported.
“Thanks to the professionalism of our defenders, as a result of the barbarians’ air attack on Kyiv, there was no damage or destruction of infrastructure and other objects or apartment buildings,” he said on Telegram. “There are no injured or dead.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday praised his country’s air defence forces, after the massive attack on Kyiv.
The overnight attack killed two people and wounded three others.
“People are in shock. There’s a lot of damage, the windows were broken, the roof was damaged,” said Sergei Movchan, a 50-year-old resident whose house was damaged by debris.
Russia has intensified aerial strikes on the capital this month, and warned the West against escalating the conflict after the United States agreed to green-light deliveries of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.