Kyiv in ‘most important’ drone attack
Published on: Monday, May 29, 2023
By: AFP
A firefighter examines the destroyed building of a medical facility, the site of a missile strike, in the city of Dnipro, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
KYIV: Russia carried out the “most important” drone attack on Kyiv overnight Saturday-Sunday since the start of the invasion, military authorities said.
Forty of the 54 drones launched targeted the capital, killing two people and wounding three.
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“In total a record number of explosive drones launched were counted: 54!” Ukraine’s air force said.
“It’s the most important drone attack against the capital since the start of the invasion” in February 2022, the regional military administration said on Telegram.
The attack “took place over several waves and the air raid alert lasted more than five hours!”
“According to preliminary reports more than 40 Russian drones were destroyed by air defence” systems over Kyiv, the administration added.
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After the drones were destroyed, “debris fell on a seven-storey building” in the capital’s Golosiivskii district, killing one person and wounding another.
A fire broke out in a warehouse zone sending flames shooting 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) into the sky and also killing one person, the administration said.
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“The emergency services are at all the sites,” the regional authorities said.
In the Solomianskii area, a 41-year-old man died and a 35-year-old woman was wounded and hospitalised, said Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko. It was the 14th drone attack on the Ukraine capital by Russia this month, the authorities said.
The 54 attack drones were launched “from the regions of Briansk and Krasnodar” in Russia, said the air force, adding that 52 were destroyed.
Moscow was targeting “military installations and critical infrastructure in the centre of the country and in particular the Kyiv region”, it said.
Meanwhile, shelling in Russian regions bordering Ukraine killed two people on Saturday, regional authorities said.
The regional governor of Belgorod said there were fresh attacks, a day after dozens of strikes.
“One person was killed. He was a security guard... he was outside at the time of the shelling” in the Shebekino area, Vyacheslav Gladkov said. He said others were wounded, including a 15- and 17-year-old.
Belogorod witnessed an unprecedented two-day incursion from Ukraine this week and Moscow used planes and artillery to push back the attackers.
In Kursk, another region bordering Ukraine, mortar shelling killed a builder, governor Roman Starovoit said on social media. Russian authorities also reported a series of incidents involving drones on the Russian territory.
The administrative building of an oil pipeline was damaged in the Pskov region “as a result of an attack by two unmanned aerial vehicles,” governor Mikhail Vedernikov said.
The blast took place in the village of Litvinovo, around 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the Belarusian border.
There were no reported casualties, and an investigation has been launched.
Unconfirmed reports from Baza, a Russian Telegram outlet with sources in the secret services, said the drones were targeting the Transneft oil pumping station in
Pskov. Baza also reported an attack targeting an oil refinery near Erokhino, in the western Tver region.
The Tver region press service said a drone had crashed near Erokhino without injuring anyone, but did not give any details. Over the past few weeks, reports of drone attacks in Russia have multiplied, usually in regions bordering Ukraine.
Moscow has blamed Kyiv—and its Western supporters—for the escalating number of attacks and sabotage operations, including on the Kremlin.
Ukraine has denied involvement.
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