Kyiv hit by new massive Russian drone attack, killing at least one person, local officials have said.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, reported that a man died and a woman was injured when wreckage from a drone fell near a petrol station. The Ukrainian Air Force stated that Russia launched a total of 54 kamikaze drones at Ukrainian targets, with 52 of them being successfully shot down. Kyiv alone managed to down over 40 drones. However, it should be noted that this information has not been independently verified.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has recently intensified its attacks on Kyiv in an attempt to overwhelm the capital’s defenses. On Sunday, air raid alerts were activated in 12 regions across Ukraine, from Volyn in the northwest to Dnipropetrovsk in the southeast.
Mayor Klitschko took to social media, urging Kyiv residents to seek shelter due to the anticipated wave of drone attacks and the challenging night ahead. He also mentioned that fragments from falling drones caused two high-rise buildings in different districts of the capital to catch fire. Additionally, warehouses in the southern Holosiyivsky district were reported to be on fire.
Some officials have accused Russia of deliberately targeting Kyiv, particularly as the city was preparing to celebrate Kyiv Day, which marks the anniversary of its foundation 1500 years ago and is a popular holiday before the war. Reports also surfaced about explosions in the city of Zhytomyr, located west of Kyiv. However, the air alert was eventually lifted both in the capital and across the country.
Russia’s recent attacks have involved kamikaze drones, as well as various cruise and ballistic missiles. These offensives come ahead of an anticipated counter-offensive by Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian security official informed the BBC on Saturday that the country is prepared to launch such an operation.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the powerful National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said an assault to retake territory from President Vladimir Putin’s occupying forces could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week”.
Ukraine has been planning a counter-offensive for months. But it has wanted as much time as possible to train troops and to receive military equipment from Western allies.
In the meantime, Russian forces have been preparing their defences in the seized regions of south-eastern Ukraine.
Speaking to the BBC, Andrei Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, said his country had “enormous resources” and it was yet to “act very seriously”.
Warning that supplies of weapons to Ukraine risk escalating the war to levels not seen so far, he added: “Sooner or later, of course, this escalation may get a new dimension which we do not need and we do not want.”
