Latest drone attack on Kyiv sends residents to air raid shelters

Sirens rang throughout Kyiv early on Friday morning, a day after Russia launched its largest aircraft attack since the start of the conflict in February, warning residents to seek shelter in air raid bunkers.

The city of Kyiv’s administration sent out an alert on the Telegram messaging platform shortly after 2:00am (00:00 GMT), urging citizens to head to shelters.
The Kyiv region’s governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on Telegram that a “drone strike” was in progress.

A Reuters witness saw several explosions and the sound of anti-aircraft fire 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Kiev.

local news source According to The Kyiv Independent, air raid warnings were sounding in the cities of Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Kirovohrad due to potential Russian drone assaults.

Later, the Eastern Command of the Ukrainian military announced that 10 drones had been shot down by anti-aircraft missiles over the districts of Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk. According to the report, nine of them were “Shahed-type drones and one Marlyn drone”.
Russian airstrikes have damaged the nation’s energy infrastructure in waves, leaving millions without heat or electricity in frequently cold conditions.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, claimed in a video address on Thursday night that the country’s air defenses in the country’s center, south, east, and west successfully repelled 54 Russian missiles and 11 drones on Thursday.

Zelenskyy said that the majority of the country was experiencing power disruptions. Losing power was “particularly painful” in Kyiv, as well as Odessa and Kherson in the south and their neighboring territories, and the area of Lviv close to Poland’s western border.

However, he said, “This is nothing in comparison to what may have occurred if it weren’t for our valiant anti-aircraft men and air defense.”

Ahead of the new year, Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, called the Russian missile attack on Thursday “senseless savagery.”

On Thursday, images from Reuters showed rescuers sifting through the smoldering remains of Kyiv homes that had been demolished by a bomb and rocket smoke trails in the sky. Officials had earlier said that during the attack on Thursday, more than 120 missiles were launched.

The recent strikes destroyed more than 18 residential buildings and 10 important infrastructure assets, according to a statement from the defense ministry.

Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, requested further weaponry shipments to Ukraine on Thursday.

In an interview, the head of NATO remarked, “It may sound like a paradox, but military support for Ukraine is the fastest road to peace.”

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, needed to be persuaded that his plan to seize control of Ukraine will fail, according to Stoltenberg.