Ukraine said on Sunday it had countered "the largest drone attack" on Kiev "since the start of the Russian invasion", which however left two dead and three injured, Volodymyr Zelensky hailing "the heroes" of the anti-aircraft defense.
"The Russian Federation has carried out another massive attack on the territory of Ukraine" using Iranian-made Shahed drones, the Ukrainian forces' general staff said at the end of the day, according to which 58 of these 59 devices explosives were knocked down.
The Russians were particularly seeking to reach "military installations and essential infrastructure in the central regions of the country, in particular in the Kiev region", explained the air force.
The military authorities specified that about forty of these drones had been sent over the capital, targeted for the fourteenth time in a month, an unprecedented series.
Russia for its part accused, through its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the West of "playing with fire" after the recent agreement given by the United States to future deliveries of F-fighter planes. 16 to Ukraine, denouncing an "unacceptable escalation".
The intensity of the muffled noises in the night marked the inhabitants of kyiv.
"People are in shock. The damage is extensive, the windows are broken, the roof is damaged," laments AFP Serguiï Movtchane, 50, who lives in the Pecherskiï district, where the debris of a drone taken out of action by the anti-aircraft defense damaged his building, without however causing any casualties.
"This is the most important drone attack against the capital since the beginning of the Russian invasion", denounced the regional military administration, specifying that this "took place in several waves" and that "the air alert lasted more than five hours".
"More than 40 Russian drones were destroyed by anti-aircraft defense" over kyiv, she said.
An efficiency hailed by the Ukrainian president: "Every time you shoot down enemy drones and missiles, lives are saved. (...) You are our heroes", said Volodymyr Zelensky at the address of the military defense anti-aircraft.
“Unfortunately, there were places affected in the region of Zhytomyr”, in the center-west, he then lamented in his evening message, without further details.
Russia "will not be saved by the" Shahed "or any other means of terror", he hammered.
"kyiv, a city of free and brave people, has become a symbol of the unshakeable spirit of Ukraine and the failed imperial ambitions of the Kremlin," said Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
Mykhaïlo Podoliak, one of the main advisers of the Ukrainian head of state, has meanwhile pointed the finger at the responsibility of Iran, whose Shahed drones are used by Russia.
"Iran today is a terrorist regime that poses a threat to Europe and the Middle East," he said, promising retaliatory sanctions.
The authorities recorded Sunday two dead and three wounded in this new "massive" attack on the capital, to use the qualifier used by its mayor Vitali Klitschko.
The Russians want to "intimidate us", reacted Serguiï Movtchane. "But I think that's the agony of their regime."
This is the fourteenth Russian drone attack on kyiv since the beginning of May, according to the authorities, and it is on a scale never seen in recent months.
The drone war thus continues to rage between Ukraine and Russia, the use of these small remotely piloted devices in conflict zones having increased exponentially on the Ukrainian front.
Russian territory has also been the target in recent weeks of a series of such attacks, in addition to sabotage, at the very time when Kiev says it is finalizing its preparations for an assault intended to reconquer all the occupied areas.
The most spectacular attack in Russia dates back to May 3 in the heart of Moscow when two drones were shot down over the Kremlin, the official residence and occasional workplace of President Vladimir Putin.
In addition to this incident, it is generally the regions bordering Ukraine that are targeted, rear bases for the supply of Russian troops.
While Russia tirelessly accuses kyiv - and its Western backers - of being behind these attacks, Ukraine generally denies any involvement.
28/05/2023 19:33:07 - Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
