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
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS