PUTIN has hammered Kyiv with the “biggest drone attack” of the war, with a record number of drones destroying buildings and injuring five people.
As many as 75 Iranian-made Kamikaze Shahed drones bombarded the city in a single night on Saturday – and the attack became more intense around sunrise.
ReutersRussia launched the ‘biggest drone attack’ on Kyiv ahead of the winter season[/caption]
ReutersAround 75 Iranian-made Kamikaze Shahed drones began to hit different parts of the city in the early hours of Saturday[/caption]
ReutersExplosions were seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike[/caption]
At least five people were injured in the attack, including an 11-year-old girl.
The drones were launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk and the Kursk regions in Russia, the Ukrainian Air Force reported.
Ukraine claimed its military was successful in intercepting some 71 drones during thr intense attack, but quite some damage was done already in the country’s capital.
The air raid sirens lasted six hours before the military confirmed the attack was contained.
A record number of drones bombarded several apartment blocks in the city and severely damaged a nursery school.
There was also open fire in the city and rescue teams were operating on the damaged sites.
Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv, wrote on Telegram: “In the Solomyan district, a fire broke out in the premises of a kindergarten as a result of the fall of UAV debris.
“There are also open fires in this area. Fire and rescue services are on site.”
Pictures from the scene show Ukranian searchlights scouring the night sky to look out for the Russian UAVs.
The Kamikaze drones were seen across multiple areas, including Kherson, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kryvyi Rih, Chernihiv, and Sumy, the Ukrainian Air Force reported.
It added: “Anti-aircraft missile troops, tactical aviation, mobile fire groups, and electronic warfare units were involved in repelling the air attack.”
Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said that much of the destruction was caused by falling debris from the drones after they were intercepted by the Ukrainian military.
President Zelensky dubbed the strikes as an “act of wilful terror”.
He added: “The closer we are to winter, the more Russians will try to make the strikes more powerful.”
“The Russian leadership is proud of the fact that it can kill,” he wrote on Telegram.”
This marks the fourth drone attack on the capital this month.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said the attack cut off power to an overhead line, that left 77 residential buildings and 120 other establishments without power in the city centre.
It comes just days after Russia launched intense drone attacks on Kyiv for a few consecutive nights.
These attacks are similar to last year’s Russian attack on the country, which began targeting Ukraine’s energy, military, and transport infrastructure, ahead of a harsh winter.
It left millions of Ukrainians without energy and heating during some of the coldest months in the season.
APA damaged kindergarten following a Russian drone attack in Kyiv[/caption]
GettyThe nursery school was hit badly by the falling debris from the drone attack[/caption]
ReutersMultiple apartments were hit by the Kamikaze drones in the country’s capital[/caption]
ReutersExplosions and falling debris destroyed several buildings’ windows and shattered glasses[/caption]
AFPInhabitants were collecting broken windows and glass after the explosion[/caption]
AFPUkrainian police were seen collecting the fragments of downed Russian drones around the city centre[/caption]
APParamedics were seen giving psychological aid to the residents of damaged apartment buildings[/caption]
ReutersUkrainian military used searchlight to lookout for more Russian drones in the night sky[/caption]
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