Ukraine war: Putin pummels Kyiv with dozens of ‘kamikaze’ drones in massive overnight blitzkrieg

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has released a new video ad promising to “kill enemies” and reclaim their nation, and avenge those who “killed my brother and raped my sisters.”

The trailer, which called for Ukrainians to join the armed forces, promised new battalions and western tanks to help the nation achieve its “sacred goal of living in freedom on its God-given land.”

The recruiting video was posted to Twitter yesterday morning, hours before Russia unleashed waves of airstrikes on Kyiv overnight in what officials say appeared to be the largest drone strike on the city since the start of the war.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 52 of 54 drones launched by Russia, calling it a record strike by Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones. It was not immediately clear how many of the drones were shot down over Kiev.

The attack came as the Ukrainian capital prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its founding today.

Rescue workers are working on the site of a building damaged in a Russian attack today

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Moscow Kremlin

In what also appears to be the first deadly attack on Kyiv in May and the 14th attack this month, a 41-year-old man was killed by falling debris, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The pre-dawn attacks took place on the last Sunday in May, when the capital celebrates Kiev Day, the anniversary of its official founding 1,541 years ago. The day is typically devoted to fairs, live concerts and special museum exhibitions – for which plans have also been made this year, but on a smaller scale.

“Ukraine’s history has been a long-standing annoyance to insecure Russians,” Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, said on his Telegram channel.

Air Force said on Telegram that Russia had targeted military and critical infrastructure facilities in the central regions of Ukraine, and in particular in the Kiev region.

Reuters could not independently verify the information.

With a Ukrainian counter-offensive looming 15 months into the war, Moscow has intensified airstrikes after a nearly two-month lull, targeting mostly military sites and supplies. Waves of attacks are now coming several times a week.

Sunday’s attacks came after Kiev said fighting around the besieged city of Bakhmut in southeastern Ukraine, the site of the war’s longest battle, had eased.

Serhiy Popko, the head of Kiev’s military administration, said the attack was carried out in several waves and that air warnings lasted more than five hours.

A firefighter working on a tobacco factory site in Kiev was injured during the strike

Rescue workers at work on the site of a building in Kiev damaged in the drone strike

Debris falling on buildings this morning after Russia dropped an airstrike on Kiev

“Today the enemy has decided to ‘congratulate’ the people of Kiev on the Day of Kiev using their deadly UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles),” Popko said on Telegram’s messaging channel.

Several districts of Kiev, by far the largest Ukrainian city with a population of about 3 million, suffered overnight attacks, officials said, including the historic Pecherskyi district.

Reuters witnesses said that during the airstrike warnings that began shortly after midnight, many people stood on their balconies, some shouting offensives aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin and “Glory to air defense” slogans.

In the leafy Holosiivskyi neighborhood of southwestern Kiev, falling debris set fire to a three-story warehouse, destroying about 1,000 square meters of building structures, Mayor Klitschko said.

A fire broke out after falling drone debris hit a seven-story non-residential building in the Solomyanskyi district west of the city. The district is a busy rail and air transport hub.

In the Pecherskyi district, a fire broke out on the roof of a nine-story building due to falling drone debris, and a store was damaged in the Darnytskyi district, officials of the Kiev military administration said on Telegram.