Ukraine: For the second night in a row, Kyiv under drone assault

Another round of drone and missile assaults against Ukraine occurred overnight, with Kyiv being the primary target of the airstrikes. City officials said that above the capital, Ukrainian soldiers destroyed more than 40 “aerial targets”.

No one was hurt, but falling drone debris damaged houses and started fires in Kiev. In the areas of Lviv, Odesa, Vinnytsya, and Khmelnytskyy, explosions were also recorded.

It was the second consecutive nocturnal attack of a comparable ferocity and Russia’s fifteenth air attack on the city this month.

Five planes and the runway were destroyed in a raid on a military airfield in Khmelnytskyy, according to local officials. According to Oleksandr Scherba, the ambassador-at-large for Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, inhabitants of Kyiv have had a very tough few days.

“Almost every night, the sky looks and sounds like something out of a Star Wars film, yet here in the city area, we don’t really feel Russian missiles striking their targets. And all of this is because respectable nations and decent people throughout the world gave us this air defense,” he remarked.

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The drone assaults and restless nights, according to Mr. Scherba, had become “part of our routine” and life in the capital was anything but normal at the moment.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, commended his nation’s air defense systems on Sunday after Kyiv came under the most significant drone strike since the war’s start.

“You are heroes,” Mr. Zelensky remarked when military leaders reported that the majority of the alleged Russian kamikaze drones had been shot down.

In recent weeks, Russia has increased its attacks on Kyiv in an effort to overwhelm the city’s defenses. The incident on Saturday night occurred as city residents were getting ready to celebrate Kyiv Day, the anniversary of the city’s founding.

People celebrated the occasion in the capital’s parks, pubs, and restaurants in a spectacular display of fortitude.

Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has been utilizing kamikaze drones as well as a variety of cruise and ballistic missiles in its latest strikes. According to analysts, Moscow is attempting to weaken and harm Ukraine’s air defenses in advance of its long-anticipated counteroffensive.

One of Ukraine’s top security officials told the BBC on Saturday that the nation was prepared to begin such an operation. An attack to recover land from President Vladimir Putin’s invading forces might start “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or in a week,” according to Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the influential National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine.