Ukraine: kyiv targeted by a large-scale Russian drone attack

Kiev was the target of a Russian drone attack on Friday night, while new explosions were reported ;were heard Saturday afternoon in the capital of Ukraine and that other regions were affected.

“Unfortunately, the Russian drone attack caused damage and casualties in several districts of kyiv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“The constant terrorist attacks on Ukrainian cities prove that the pressure on Russia and its accomplices is not enough,” he added.

AFP journalists heard more explosions in kyiv on Saturday afternoon, as an air raid alert had been issued.

In the morning, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down 39 of the 71 drones launched from Russia overnight.

The drones targeted the region surrounding the capital, the border sector of Sumy (northeast of the country) as well as the central regions of Kirovograd and Poltava.

Twenty-one drones were lost and five were sent back to Russia, the air force said, adding that the drone attack was continuing.

It said debris from the downed drones damaged homes and buildings in four regions, including kyiv, Sumy and the area of ​​the southwestern port city of Odessa.

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According to the Kiev military administration, debris from drones shot down by air defenses fell in six districts of the capital, damaging buildings and cars and starting several fires in buildings that were extinguished.

Photo released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on November 2, 2024, of firefighters extinguishing a fire in a residential building hit by falling fragments of a Russian drone during an attack on kyiv © State Emergency Service of Ukraine – Handout

A police officer was injured, according to the administration. In the kyiv region outside the capital, an 82-year-old woman was injured in the head by shrapnel.

In a village near the southern city of Kherson, a 40-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble after artillery fire by Russian troops and four people were injured, including three children, the governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said.

The health ministry said a hospital in Kherson was hit, damaging two wards and a laboratory. Medical personnel and patients, who were able to take shelter, were not injured.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrsky, said Saturday that his troops on the ground were “repelling one of the most powerful Russian offensives since the start of the large-scale invasion.”

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