Russia unleashed waves of air strikes on Ukraine’s capital overnight ahead of the anniversary of its founding on Sunday.
More than 50 out of the 54 Iranian-made ‘Kamikaze’ drones were downed in what officials described as the ‘largest’ attack on the city since the start of the war.
Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said a 41-year-old man was killed when wreckage fell near a gas station, and a woman was injured.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had targeted military and critical infrastructure facilities in the central regions of Ukraine, and the Kyiv region in particular.
Serhiy Popko, head of the capital’s military administration, shared an update on Telegram: ‘Today, the enemy decided to “congratulate” the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).
‘The attack was carried out in several waves, and the air alert lasted more than five hours.’
Kyiv Day – the anniversary of its founding 1,541 years ago – is normally marked by street fairs, live concerts and special museum exhibitions.
But this year residents were awoken in the middle of the night by an air raid alert that lasted for more than five hours.
Plans for the event have been made this year as well, but on a much smaller scale.
‘The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for the insecure Russians,’ Andriy Yermak, the head of president Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said on his Telegram channel.
Several districts of Kyiv suffered in the overnight attacks, officials said, including the historical Pecherskyi neighbourhood.
In the Holosiivskyi district, debris set a three-storey warehouse on fire, destroying about 1,000 square metres of building structures.
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