Air raid sirens wailed over five hours in Kyiv as Russian drones rained down on the capital.
ADVERTISEMENTFallen debris from intercepted Russian drones resulted in damage across Kyiv after Moscow targeted the Ukrainian capital in an hour-long drone attack. The debris caused destruction in six city districts, according to Kyiv’s City Military Administration.
Ukraine’s air force said that Moscow launched a total of 71 Iranian-made Shahed drones towards the capital overnight on Saturday, most of which were intercepted or sent off-course using GPS jamming.
Ukrainian forces shot down 39 out of the 71 drones, and ‘lost’ another 21. According to local media, five drones flew back towards Russia.
The wreckage of the fallen drones struck a 16-storey apartment and office block, resulting in damage on the top two floors and sparking a fire.
The debris also damaged a high-voltage line powering the capital, according to Ukrainian energy provider DTEK. They have since confirmed that power has been mostly restored, and that they are working on the repairs.
On social media platform X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that this year, his country “faced the threat of ‘Shahed’ drones almost every night—sometimes in the morning, and even during the day,” he added that the Iranian-backed UAVs “have become one of the primary instruments of Russian terror against Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy also reported drone strikes in the Poltava, Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukraine requires a constant supply of resources as the defense forces “are holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.”