Ukraine said it shot down a missile targeting Kiev on Saturday, ending nearly two months of relative calm for the capital although it caused no injuries, while areas close to the front were targeted by a wave of Russian attacks.
This round of strikes occurs on the first anniversary of the liberation of Kherson by the Ukrainian army. A date which also marks the last major evolution of the front, kyiv’s ambitious counter-offensive has since come up against impenetrable Russian defenses.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday praised the “heroism” of this southern city “synonymous with hope”, regretting that Russia this year “took revenge” with the bombs of “Kherson freedom”.
From Friday evening to Saturday morning, “nearly 40 drones and missiles” were fired toward Ukraine, he said.
One of these missiles, which aimed at kyiv, was shot down on Saturday morning, according to local authorities.
“After a long break of 52 days, the enemy has resumed its missile attacks on kyiv! “, declared the head of the military administration of the Ukrainian capital Serguiï Popko on the Telegram messaging service.
Ukraine fears an increase in attacks with the arrival of cold weather. Last winter, Russia shelled Ukraine’s energy grid, leaving thousands of people without heat or electricity.
AFP journalists in the center of the capital heard two loud explosions and saw traces in the sky at dawn. Air warning sirens sounded shortly afterwards.
No casualties or material damage were reported, but two other missiles hit a field between two residential areas in the Kiev region, head of the regional military administration Ruslan Kravchenko said.
Five apartment buildings were damaged, with broken roofs and windows, he added.
Drone attacks
The rest of Ukraine was not spared from the attacks. In total, the army said it had shot down 19 Iranian-made Shahed drones, out of the 31 sent to its territory.
In the east, two elderly people died “probably due to artillery fire” in Toretsk, a town in the Donetsk region, according to the prosecutor general.
To the south, in the Odessa region, three people were injured by a Russian strike, according to the local governor, Oleg Kiper.
These attacks also affected port infrastructure, important for Ukraine’s exports and therefore favored targets for Moscow, he said.
Over the past 24 hours, two people were killed and eight others injured in the Kherson region, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
And in central Kherson, two people were injured Saturday afternoon in a strike on a building, according to the regional administration.
Bombings remain almost daily in this city, a year after the end of its occupation by the Russians.
The anniversary of this liberation is a celebration which “reinforces the confidence of Ukrainians in their abilities”, assured Volodymyr Zelensky in a video.
His commander-in-chief, Valery Zalouzhny, reminded him that his soldiers “continue[aient] to fight and defend our land with determination.”
The respected official recently sparked controversy by declaring that the war was “at an impasse”, fueling debate over the limited results of kyiv’s counter-offensive.
Because, since the liberation of Kherson, the front has been almost frozen. Worse, Russia launches its own attacks to force the Ukrainian army to withdraw, as in Avdiïvka, in the east.
Around this city, Kiev troops are facing Russian assaults but “holding firm,” assured Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Tarnavskii.
A Ukrainian strike left one dead in Gorlivka, in territory occupied by Russia, the mayor installed by the Russian authorities, Ivan Prikhodko, said on Telegram.
And in Russia, Ukrainian drones were shot down in the Smolensk region, near the Ukrainian border, and in that of Moscow, without causing any injuries, according to Russian authorities.