War in Ukraine | Large-scale Russian drone attack targets Kyiv

(Kyiv) Kyiv was the target of a Russian drone attack overnight from Friday to Saturday, while new explosions were heard on Saturday afternoon in the Ukrainian capital and other regions were affected.

“Unfortunately, the Russian drone attack caused damage and casualties in several districts of Kyiv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“The constant terrorist attacks on Ukrainian cities prove that the pressure on Russia and its accomplices is not enough,” he added.

AFP journalists heard new explosions in Kyiv on Saturday afternoon, after an air raid alert was issued.

In the morning, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down 39 of 71 drones launched from Russia overnight.

The drones targeted the region surrounding the capital, the border sector of Sumy (north-east of the country) as well as the central regions of Kirovograd and Poltava.

Twenty-one drones were lost and five were returned to Russia, the air force said, adding that the drone attack continued.

She said debris from downed drones damaged houses and buildings in four regions, including Kyiv, Sumy and the area of ​​the port city of Odessa (Southwest).

According to the Kyiv military administration, debris from drones shot down by air defenses fell in six neighborhoods of the capital, damaging buildings and cars and starting several fires in buildings which were extinguished.

A police officer was injured, according to the administration. In the Kyiv region outside the capital, an 82-year-old woman was injured in the head by shrapnel.

In a village near the southern city of Kherson, a 40-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble after artillery fire from Russian troops and four people were injured, including three children, the governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said.

The Health Ministry said a hospital in Kherson was hit, damaging two wards and a laboratory. The medical staff and patients, who were able to take shelter, were not injured.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrsky, said on Saturday that his troops on the ground were “repelling one of the most powerful Russian offensives since the start of the large-scale invasion”.