KYIV, UKRAINE (AP) – Russia deployed multiple drones overnight to attack parts of Ukraine and dozens were shot down, Ukrainian officials said yesterday, in a series of attacks through the weekend that killed three civilians on New Year’s Eve.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 40 drones “headed for Kyiv” overnight, according to air defence forces, and all of them were destroyed.
Klitschko said 22 drones were destroyed over Kyiv, three in the outlying Kyiv region and 15 over neighbouring provinces. Energy infrastructure facilities were damaged as the result of the attack and an explosion occurred in one city district, the mayor said.
A wounded 19-year-old man was hospitalised, Klitschko added, and emergency power outages were underway in the capital.
In the outlying Kyiv region a “critical infrastructure object” and residential buildings were hit, Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said. Seven drones were shot down over the southern Mykolaiv region, according to Governor Vitali Kim, and three more were shot down in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a missile was also destroyed, according to Reznichenko. He said that energy infrastructure in the region was being targetted.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported yesterday that 39 exploding Shahed drones were shot down overnight, as well as two Russian-made Orlan drones and a X-59 missile across Ukraine.
A blistering New Year’s Eve assault killed at least four civilians across the country, Ukrainian authorities reported, and wounded dozens. The fourth victim, a 46-year-old resident of Kyiv, died in a hospital yesterday morning, Klitschko said.
Multiple blasts rocked the capital and other areas of Ukraine on Saturday and through the night.
The strikes came 36 hours after widespread missile attacks Russia launched on Thursday to damage energy infrastructure facilities, and the unusually quick follow-up alarmed Ukrainian officials.
