Russia launched an early morning attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on Saturday, using drones and missiles. The assault caused fires, scattered debris across several city districts, and left at least eight people injured, according to the city’s mayor.
Reuters witnesses saw and heard successive waves of drones flying over Kyiv, and a series of explosions jolted the city.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two residents had required hospital treatment and that air defence units were in action.
Several Buildings Damaged
Pictures posted online showed smoke billowing from the top of one block of flats and flames leaping from part of another as emergency crews trained water on it. An orange-red glow lit up the city as plumes of smoke wafted across the horizon.
Klitschko said fragments from one drone struck the top floor of an apartment building in the Solomynskyi district on the west bank of the Dnipro River, which bisects the city. One apartment building was on fire in the area as was one non-residential building.
Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said a fire had also broken out on two floors of an apartment building in Dniprovskyi district on the opposite bank.
Officials also reported a fire in Obolon in the city’s northern suburbs and fallen debris on a shopping centre in the same area. They said drone fragments hit the ground in a number of other widely separated neighbourhoods.
An air alert remained in effect more than two hours after it was first declared.
Disrupting Peace Talks?
The overnight strikes followed several days of Ukrainian drone attacks – some 800 attacks – on targets inside Russia, including capital Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had vowed on Friday to respond to those attacks.
Lavrov said the surge of Ukrainian drone attacks was “a direct consequence” of support for Ukraine by European Union countries whose leaders visited Kyiv in recent days.
“We are certain that they will be held accountable for their share of responsibility for these crimes,” Lavrov said, referring to the European countries.
“This is clearly an attempt to disrupt peace talks and undermine progress made in Istanbul following the agreements between the presidents of Russia and the United States…We will continue this work no matter what provocations there may be,” he said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
