Russia launches overnight drone attack on Kyiv
Russia unleashed a drone strike targeting the Ukrainian capital in an overnight attack that lasted into late morning, wounding at least one as swathes of the city were destroyed.
Kyiv officials said debris from downed drones struck six districts, wounding a police officer, damaging residential buildings and engulfing buildings in flames.
Explosions and automatic weapons fire were heard amid the air-raid alert that lasted more than five hours, with one drone seen flying low over the city, according to Reuters.
It comes after experts warned that Ukraine is facing collapse on parts of the eastern front after Russia made “unusually large” gains in the past week putting Ukrainian forces are under “severe pressure”.
Mayor Vitalii Klitschko had earlier reported that two people had been injured. All the drones aimed at Kyiv had been shot down, he said.
“Another night. Another air-raid alert. Another drone attack. The armed forces of the Russian Federation attacked Kyiv again according to their old and familiar tactics,” military administrator Serhiy Popko wrote on social media.
On Friday two missiles struck a police station in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, killing a policeman and wounding 30 other people, the national police chief said.
Russia has made significant advances in the Vuhledar and Selydove areas in the eastern Donetsk province, according to pro-Ukraine open source intelligence (OSINT) groups.
Ukraine’s military reported on Saturday that air defences had destroyed 39 out of 71 Russian drones that had been launched, and that another 21 had been “locationally lost”.
Military security expert, Professor Anthony Glees, told i this critical moment is “very bad news” for both Ukraine and its European allies.
“Without the capacity to hit deep into Russia thanks to Biden’s foolish permanent ‘red lines’, assailed by North Korean troops at the Kursk incursion and advances to the south west, Zelensky is being made to look as if he can no longer secure his country,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said strikes were also reported in the central Poltava and northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
“This year, we have faced the threat of ‘Shahed’ drones almost every night — sometimes in the morning, and even during the day,” he wrote on social media, referring to the Iranian-made attack drones used by Russia.
Russian forces have carried out regular airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the front lines of the war which began when Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.
Kyiv’s military said on Friday that Moscow’s forces had launched more than 2,000 drones at civilian and military targets across Ukraine in October alone.
Russia has denied aiming at civilians and said power facilities are legitimate targets when they are part of Ukrainian military infrastructure.
Russian forces breached Selydove and Hirnyk last week and began offensive operations in Vuhledar’s direction on Friday, according to Finnish analysts Black Bird Group.
John Helin, of Black Bird Group, said the situation on the south Donetsk front line “has turned very difficult”.
Russian forces recently broke through the Ukrainian lines and raised a Russian flag in Bohoyavlenka, 9km north-west of Vuhledar, and have been seen to the west, according to Ukraine Control Map, another OSINT group. The Russians have raised flags over Selydove and Vyshneve and are expected to do so in the rest of Hirnyk and Kurakhivka “any day now”, the analysts said.
“To be clear to anyone that just shrugs these off – these are not normal movements,” Ukrainian Control Map added.
i previously revealed that the UK Foreign Office said it was “highly likely” that North Korea has sent combat troops to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine.
On Thursday a record-breaking missile test in North Korea, flew for some 86 minutes, suggesting Pyongyang is receiving technological support from the Kremlin.
The test demonstrated an advancement towards the country’s ability to launch long-range nuclear attacks against the US mainland.
The missile was launched on a sharply lofted trajectory from an area near the capital, Pyongyang, and splashed down about 300 km (190 miles) west of Japan’s Hokkaido island.
South Korea said its analysis indicated that North Korea used a newly developed solid-fuel booster and extended its missile flight time from 73 minutes last year to 87 minutes. Missiles with solid propellants are easier to move and can be launched more quickly than liquid-propellant missiles.