Latest drone attack on Kyiv sends residents to air raid shelters | Russia-Ukraine war News

Ukraine’s military said 10 drones were downed during an attack early Friday morning, local media reported.

Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kiev were urged to head to air raid shelters as sirens wailed across the city early Friday morning, a day after Russia launched its biggest airstrike since the war began in February.

Shortly after 2:00 a.m. (00:00 GMT), the Kyiv city government issued an alert on its Telegram messaging app urging residents to go to shelters.

Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv region, said on Telegram that a “drone attack” was underway.

A Reuters witness 20 km (12 miles) south of Kiev heard several explosions and the sound of anti-aircraft fire.

Local media The Kyiv Independent reported that air raid alerts were going off in Kyiv, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad regions due to possible Russian drone strikes.

The Eastern Command of the Ukrainian military later reported that anti-aircraft missiles had shot down 10 drones over the Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Nine were “Shaheed-type drones and one Marlyn drone,” according to the report.

⚡️The Ukrainian army shoots down 10 drones.

Ukraine’s Eastern Operational Command reported that its anti-aircraft missile units, together with air defense units of the ground forces, destroyed nine Shahed drones and one Marlyn drone in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 30, 2022

Waves of Russian airstrikes have battered the country’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions without electricity and heating in often freezing temperatures.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video address Thursday night, said Ukraine’s air commands in the center, south, east and west of the country shot back 54 Russian missiles and 11 drones on Thursday.

Zelenskyy admitted that most regions were suffering power cuts. Areas where the loss of power was “particularly difficult” included Kiev, as well as the southern cities of Odesa and Kherson and surrounding regions, and the region around Lviv near the western border with Poland.

“But that’s nothing compared to what could have happened if it weren’t for our heroic anti-aircraft troops and air defense,” he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described Thursday’s Russian missile barrage as “senseless barbarism” ahead of the New Year.

Senseless barbarism. These are the only words that come to mind as Russia fires another volley of rockets at peaceful Ukrainian towns ahead of the New Year. There can be no ‘neutrality’ in the face of such massive war crimes. Pretending to be ‘neutral’ is tantamount to taking Russia’s side.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) December 29, 2022

Reuters footage on Thursday showed emergency workers searching through the rubble of houses in Kiev destroyed by an explosion and smoke from rockets billowing into the sky. Officials had said earlier that more than 120 rockets were fired during Thursday’s attack.

More than 18 residential buildings and 10 critical infrastructure installations were destroyed in the latest attacks, the defense ministry said in a statement.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called Thursday for additional arms shipments to Ukraine.

“It may sound like a paradox, but military support for Ukraine is the fastest way to peace,” the NATO chief said in an interview.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had to be convinced that he would not achieve his goal of taking control of Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.