Russia launches major attack on Ukrainian infrastructure, 3 killed

GBNEWS24DESK//

Waves of explosive-laden suicide drones struck Ukraine’s capital Monday, setting buildings ablaze and sending people scurrying for shelter or attempting to shoot down the kamikazes — a week after Russia unleashed its most widespread strikes against the country in months.

Air attacks in central Kyiv had become a rarity in recent months, and the concentrated use of drones, their blasts echoing across the city, sowed terror and frayed nerves. One of the drones slammed into a residential building, killing three people, said the deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Energy facilities were also among the targets.

Drones used in the attack appeared to include Iranian-made Shaheds. Previous Russian airstrikes on Kyiv were mostly with missiles. Intense, sustained bursts of gunfire rang out Monday as the drones hummed overhead, apparently soldiers trying to shoot them down. Others headed for shelter — though city life quickly resumed in a country that has become grimly accustomed to attacks.

In what many fear could become more common occurrences in urban centers nearly eight months into the war, the barrage came in successive waves of 28 drones, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said. Five of them plunged into Kyiv itself, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

In the Kyiv region, 13 or more were shot down, all of them as they flew in from the south, said a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yurii Ihnat.

One strike appeared to target the city’s heating network, hitting an operations center. Another slammed into a four-story residential building, ripping a large hole in it and collapsing at least three apartments on top of each other. In addition to the three people killed there, Tymoshenko said 19 were rescued from the rubble, four of them wounded. Rescue workers searching for victims scrambled over the debris from which gray smoke billowed.

An Associated Press photographer who was out shooting morning scenes of Kyiv caught one of the drones on camera, its triangle-shaped wing and pointed warhead clearly visible against the blue sky.

“The whole night, and the whole morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post. “Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine.”

“The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us,” he wrote.

The Iranian-made Shaheds, which Russia has rebranded as Geran-2 drones, pack an explosive charge and can linger over targets before nosediving into them. They can be fired one after the other.