Russia has carried out a new massive drone attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said a man died when drone wreckage fell near a petrol station. A woman was injured.
Overall, Russia launched a record 54 so-called kamikaze drones on Ukrainian targets, 52 of which were shot down, Ukraine’s Air Force reported.
Russia which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 has stepped up its attacks on Kyiv, seeking to overwhelm the capital’s defenses.
At least two high-rise buildings in different districts of the capital caught fire after being hit by falling drone fragments.
Kyiv officials also reported that warehouses in the southern Holosiyivsky district had been set ablaze.
More than 40 drones were downed over the capital overnight, Ukrainian officials said. This information has not been independently verified.
But President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the air defence and rescue services, saying: “You look up to destroy enemy missiles, aircraft, helicopters, and drones. Every time you shoot down enemy drones and missiles, lives are saved… you are heroes!”
Kyiv resident Anastasiia said that she was asleep at home when she was woken up by the sound of a drone flying “very close” to her window.
“I then saw a big flash of light inside the flat. At first it was yellow, then bright orange and then blinding white. It was so bright that I could not see anything in the flat,” she told the BBC, adding that it wall went “very quiet” during the flashes and that the sound of the explosions came “two or three seconds after the flash. It was very loud, like thunder.”
“Those two or three seconds felt like a very long time,” she said. “The bright light was transformed into total darkness. I wanted to check if there was any damage. I could not understand what happened. I was in shock so I did not feel scared. I could not understand if I and my flat were OK.”
Some officials accused Russia of targeting Kyiv deliberately as residents prepared to celebrate Kyiv Day the anniversary of the city’s foundation more than 1,500 years ago and a popular holiday before the war.
Earlier on Sunday, air raid alerts were activated in 12 regions of Ukraine, from Volyn in the north-west to Dnipropetrovsk in the south-east. There were also reports of explosions in the city of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv.
In its recent attacks, Russia has been using so-called kamikaze drones as well as a range of cruise and ballistic missiles.
The frequency of the Russian attacks on Kyiv and elsewhere has been increasing as Ukraine steps up its preparations for a counter-offensive.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the powerful National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said an assault to retake territory from President Vladimir Putin’s occupying forces could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week”.
BBC/Adebukola Aluko
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