Ukraine said on Sunday that it had countered overnight “the most significant drone attack” on Kiev “since the start of the Russian invasion”, which however left two dead and three injured, President Volodymyr Zelensky welcoming “ the heroes” of anti-aircraft defence.
The military authorities claimed to have destroyed 52 of the 54 explosive drones launched by Moscow in the country, including around forty above Kiev, targeted for the fourteenth time in a month, an unprecedented series.
Russia for its part claimed that the West was “playing with fire” after the recent green light from the United States for future deliveries of F-16 fighter jets to Kiev.
In the Ukrainian capital, the intensity of the deaf noises in the night marked the inhabitants.
“People are in shock. The damage is significant, the windows are broken, the roof is damaged, ”deplores AFP Serguiï Movtchane, 50, a resident of the Pechersky district, where the debris of a drone shot down by the anti-aircraft defense damaged his building. , with no 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 the air alert lasted more than five hours! “.
“More than 40 Russian drones were destroyed by air defense” over kyiv, she said.
Efficiency praised by Volodymyr Zelensky: “Each time you shoot down enemy drones and missiles, lives are saved. […] You are our heroes, ”he said on Telegram to the address of the anti-aircraft defense soldiers.
“kyiv held firm,” welcomed the head of the presidential administration, Andriï Yermak.
“Bullying”
However, the authorities recorded two dead and three injured in this new “massive” attack on kyiv, as its mayor Vitali Klitschko described it.
“The Russians are intimidating us,” says Serguii Movtchane for his part. “But I think it’s the agony of their regime,” he continues.
This is the fourteenth Russian drone attack on kyiv since the beginning of May according to the authorities, an unprecedented scale for several months when the capital had been relatively spared at the start of the year.
In total in the country, “a record number of explosive drones launched were recorded: 54! “Said the Ukrainian Air Force, congratulating itself on having” destroyed 52 “.
According to her, Russia was targeting in particular “military installations and critical infrastructure in the central regions of the country, in particular in the kyiv region”.
drone war
The drone war thus continues to rage between Ukraine and Russia, the use of these small remotely piloted devices in conflict zones having exploded on the Ukrainian front.
Russian territory has also been targeted in recent weeks by a series of attacks of this kind in addition to sabotage, at the very time when Kiev says it is finalizing its preparations before launching an assault aimed at reconquering all the territories occupied by Moscow.
The most spectacular attack dates back to May 3 when two drones were shot down over the Kremlin in Moscow, the official residence and occasional workplace of President Vladimir Putin. Moscow had accused kyiv, which had denied any involvement.
In addition to this incident in the heart of the Russian capital, it is generally the regions bordering Ukraine that are targeted, even where the Russian army partly supplies its troops upstream from Ukrainian soil.
But these drones can also strike several hundred kilometers inside Russian territory.
On Saturday, two drones damaged a building from which an oil pipeline is administered in the Pskov region, in western Russia, Governor Mikhail Vedernikov announced.
While Moscow tirelessly accuses kyiv — and its Western backers — of being behind these attacks, Ukraine generally denies any involvement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also denounced on Sunday the “unacceptable escalation” represented in his view by the recent Western green light for the future delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Kiev.
“It’s playing with fire. There is no doubt about it, ”he said in an interview on Russian state television, an excerpt of which was published on the social networks of the journalist who interviewed him.