Russian drone attacks: More than 50 UAVs downed over Ukrainian capital

CNN
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A wave of Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital left one person dead and sparked fires around the city, officials in Kyiv said early Sunday.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitshko said Ukrainian air defense forces had “already intercepted more than 20 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)” heading toward the capital and warned that “a new wave of drones is on its way.”

The Ukrainian Air Force said later that 54 Iranian Shahed drones had been launched by Russia overnight and that 52 of them had been destroyed by Ukrainian forces.

“The enemy launched another overnight attack on military facilities and critical infrastructure in the country’s central regions, specifically Kyiv Oblast. Near the zone Air Command ‘Center’, most of the attack drones were destroyed!” the air force said in a Twitter post.

A 41-year-old man died in the city’s Solomyanskyi district following the attacks, while falling drone debris at a gas station injured a 35-year-old woman, Mayor Klitshko said.

Falling drone debris also sparked fires in buildings across the capital, the mayor said on Telegram.

A fire spanning 700 square meters (7,534 square feet) had been contained but buildings across an area of 1,000 square meters area were damaged, Klitschko added.

In the Pecherskyi district, the historical center of Kyiv, falling drone debris also sparked a fire on the roof of a nine-story building, Klitschko said.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian forces shelled the city of Nikopol with heavy artillery, said Serhii Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region’s military administration.

“The enemy fired again on the civilian population with heavy artillery. The aggressor shelled Nikopol twice during the night, damaging six private houses and two outbuildings,” Lysak wrote in a Telegram post.

A gas and main power line were damaged in the attack, but no casualties were reported, according to Lysak.