At least four killed in waves of suicide drones strike on Kyiv
Kyiv: Waves of explosives-laden suicide drones struck Ukraine's capital on Monday, setting buildings ablaze and tearing a hole in one of them while sending people scurrying for shelter or trying to shoot down the kamikazes.
The concentrated use of the drones was the second barrage in as many weeks after months where air attacks had become a rarity in central Kyiv.
The assault sowed terror and frayed nerves as blasts echoed across the city. Energy facilities were struck, and one drone slammed into a residential building, killing four people, authorities said.
The drones appeared to include Iranian-made Shaheds. Intense, sustained bursts of gunfire rang out as they buzzed overhead, apparently from soldiers trying to destroy them.
Others headed for shelter, nervously scanning the skies. But Ukraine has become grimly accustomed to attacks nearly eight months into the Russian invasion, and city life resumed as rescuers picked through the debris. Previous Russian airstrikes on Kyiv were mostly with missiles. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday's barrage came in successive waves of 28 drones in what many fear could become a more common mode of attack as Russia seeks to avoid depleting its stockpiles of long-range precision missiles.
Five drones plunged into Kyiv itself, said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. In the Kyiv region, at least 13 were shot down, all of them flying in from the south, said Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for Ukraine's air force. One strike appeared to target the city's heating network, hitting an operations centre.
Another slammed into a four-story residential building, ripping a large hole in it and collapsing at least three apartments on top of each other. Four bodies were recovered, including those of a woman who was six months pregnant and her husband, Klitschko said. An older woman and another man also were killed there.
An Associated Press photographer caught one of the drones on camera, its triangle-shaped wing and pointed warhead clearly visible against the blue sky.
"The whole night, and the whole morning, the enemy terrorises the civilian population," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine.
"The enemy can attack our cities, but it won't be able to break us," he wrote. Andrii Yermak, head of the presidential office, posted on social media that Shahed drones were among those used. Zelenskyy, citing Ukrainian intelligence services, has previously alleged Russia has ordered 2,400 of the Shahed drones from Iran.
