A missile targeted Kyiv on Saturday without causing casualties but ending about two months of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital, while frontline regions fended off waves of drone attacks overnight. Ukrainian officials also hailed the anniversary of the recapture of Kherson city, the regional capital liberated a year ago in the last major frontline shift.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Kherson as a “city of hope” while regretting “revenge” daily shelling by Russia.
“Just between yesterday evening and this morning, [Russia launched] almost 40 drones and rockets... Ballistic attacks against Kyiv, drones and rockets against Odesa, the Kharkiv region,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
Ukraine has been bracing for a renewed aerial onslaught this winter, after systematic strikes on the country’s energy grid left thousands without heating or electricity in freezing temperatures last winter.
A missile targeted Kyiv “after a long pause of 52 days,” Sergiy Popko,the head of Kyiv City Military Administration, said.
AFP journalists in central Kyiv heard two strong explosions and saw trails in the sky at dawn. Air sirens sounded soon after that.
The air force said it destroyed a missile approaching Kyiv — either an Iskander ballistic missile or an S-400 anti-aircraft missile — without reporting casualties.
Air defenses last downed a missile in Kyiv on Sept. 21. The falling debris wounded seven people, including a child.
Two missiles hit a field between two settlements in the wider Kyiv region, damaging five private homes, regional military administration chief Ruslan Kravchenko said.
The air force said it downed 19 of the 31 attack drones launched by Moscow from Friday evening to Saturday 03:00am.
“The Russian occupants sent most of the attack UAVs (uncrewed aerial vehicles) to the frontline areas,” it said.
It added that Russia fired several missiles overnight, but did not specify if any were downed.
On Saturday, two men were killed in the northeast region of Sumy in an unspecified Russian attack, Ukranian Prosecutor General’s office said.
Two missiles also hit Odesa, wounding three people including a 96-year-old woman who was hospitalized.
Ukrainians have worried that Russia might pick up its campaign of strikes on energy infrastructures, and warned Kyiv would strike back on Russian oil and gas infrastructure.
It “would be fair” to target Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure if Ukraine’s power grid came under sustained attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Energy German Galushchenko said in an interview with Politico.
To prepare for the possible attacks on energy facilities — for a second winter — Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine had deployed more defense systems.
Zelenskiy also praised his country’s resilience in a message congratulating residents and soldiers for the liberation of Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name.
“Ukraine always comes back — always!” Zelenskiy said, adding: “when we are united. And when we unite others.”
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