Ukraine yesterday said it shot down most of the three dozen drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack mainly directed around the capital, Kyiv.
The latest attack came as Ukraine’s forces call for more Western support for their grueling counteroffensive to retake land in the east and south.
“We recorded the launch of 33 Shahed [drones] in the direction of Kyiv ... 26 were destroyed,” the Ukrainian Air Force said.
Photo: Reuters
Earlier, officials said that air defenses downed 25 out of 32 drones.
An Agence France-Presse journalist in the capital reported hearing multiple explosions — presumably from air defense — starting at about 1:30am.
“Drones entered the capital in groups and from different directions,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.
Debris fell in several districts, damaging an apartment in a multistory building, as well as road surfaces and power lines, he said, adding that one person was injured.
Ukrainian emergency services published photos of rescuers putting out fires in several districts.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that a resident had an “acute stress attack” and was receiving medical assistance after debris fell in central Podil district.
Kyiv dealt with drone and missile attacks on an almost nightly basis in winter and spring last year, as Russia pounded cities across Ukraine in a bid to wipe out Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and destroy morale.
The strikes had since become less frequent, but last month the capital faced the “most powerful strike” since spring, with more than 20 drones and missiles destroyed.
As summer comes to a close, Klitschko on Tuesday last week told journalists that the city was already preparing for a “tough” winter.
In a conference in the capital on Friday and Saturday, officials said that the West should not waste any time and provide Kyiv with powerful arms to back up its army pushing Russian troops out of the territories it seized.
Newly appointed Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov called for more military equipment.
“We are grateful for all the support provided... We need more heavy weapons,” Umerov said.
“We need them today. We need them now,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the provision of weapons was slowing down, hampering the counteroffensive against Russian positions.
On Saturday, a Spanish aid worker was killed when a missile hit the vehicle she was traveling in, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares said yesterday.
“Unfortunately, I can confirm a missile hit a vehicle in which this Spanish worker was travelling who was working for a humanitarian NGO [non-governmental organization] in Ukraine. We have verbal confirmation of her death,” Albares told reporters in India where he attended the G20 meeting.
Albares did not name the aid worker.
A Canadian aid worker also died in the attack in Chasiv Yar, in the Donetsk region, authorities said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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