The latest strike comes just hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Ukraine’s air defense units for saving lives.
Russia has launched a wave of air strikes on Kiev just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the country’s air defense units for saving hundreds of lives by shooting down a barrage of Russian drones and missiles targeting the capital and other locations.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, air defense systems in Kyiv were shooting down incoming targets, city officials said, as air raid sirens blared in several regions.
“A Mass Attack!” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said this in the Telegram messaging app. “Do not leave hiding places.”
Klitschko said a 27-year-old woman was taken to hospital after sustaining injuries in the southwestern district of Holosiivskyi. He later reported that one person had been killed in the last Russian airstrike.
Kiev military administration officials said air defense systems attacked and destroyed the incoming projectiles and falling debris had hit several districts of the capital, including the historic districts of Podil and Pecherskyi.
Residents of a high-rise apartment building were evacuated early Tuesday after falling debris started a fire, Klitschko said.
Serhiy Popko, the head of Kiev’s military administration, called it a “massive” attack launched in several waves and said on the Telegram messaging app that Russia carried out the attack using Iranian-made Shahed drones and more than 20 were shot.
Tuesday’s attack – the third in 24 hours – marks Russia’s 17th airstrike on the capital this month, following two attacks on Monday, including a rare daytime strike that forced people to take shelter underground and schoolchildren fled the streets of Kiev for safety.
Kiev. Morning after sleepless night under fire. Fear again…
Children run and scream for shelter from the sound of explosions. But it shouldn’t be like that – everywhere and never. Fear cannot be turned off – but we don’t stop, we act. Ukraine continues to fight 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/wTKS3sv6qi— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) May 29, 2023
In his late-night speech on Monday, Zelensky said that while some of the Russian airstrikes, which he labeled “bad,” had managed to get through Ukraine’s defenses, most had been shot down by drones and missiles.
“The world needs to see that terror is losing,” the Ukrainian leader said, calling for more aid to further improve the country’s defences.
“There is no greater humiliation for a terrorist state than the success of our warriors,” he added on a day when 11 ballistic and cruise missiles were fired by Russia at Kiev, shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief said. of the Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., said overnight on Sunday and Monday, and during the daytime attack on Monday, Russia had launched 11 Iskander ballistic missiles, 38 Shahed drones and 40 cruise missiles.
The airstrike campaign indicates that Russia is trying to weaken Ukraine’s ability to launch an expected offensive to regain lost territory for Russia, but the “prioritization of targeting Kiev is likely to undermine the campaign’s ability to launch potential Ukrainian counteroffensives.” meaningfully limit, further limit actions,” the institute said. said.
Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, suggested that US-supplied Patriot anti-missile systems were behind the successful interception of incoming Iskander ballistic missiles and other weapons.
“I think you can guess,” Ihnat told Ukrainian television. “If Iskander-M missiles are intercepted, you can draw conclusions about the means directed specifically at the targets — ballistic targets.”
Zelenskyy also mentioned the Patriot system in his Monday night message, saying that with such defense “terror will be defeated.”
The world needs to see that terror is losing. When patriots in the hands of Ukrainians ensure that all Russian missiles are shot down 100 percent, terror loses. When the world ramps up pressure on Russia, including sanctions, when the terrorist’s isolation grows, when his… pic.twitter.com/KyPmzoxsPF
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 29, 2023