Kyiv, Ukraine — Waves of explosive-laden suicide drones struck Ukraine’s capital as families were preparing to start their week early Monday, the blasts echoing across Kyiv, setting buildings ablaze and sending people scurrying to shelters. The assaults came a week after Russia orchestrated massive, coordinated air strikes across the country.
The capital’s central Shevchenko district was among the areas hit, with apartment blocks damaged and a non-residential building on fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. 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. Drones came in several waves and buzzed overhead with angry hums from their engines.
Images from an Agence France-Presse photographer showed the drones flying low as police officers fired at them from the ground.
There was no immediate word of casualties. The drones’ intended targets weren’t immediately clear but Russian strikes over the past week have hit infrastructure, including power facilities.Klitschko said two people were trapped under one residential building, according to AFP.
Social media video posts showed drones buzzing over the capital and smoke billowing in the early morning light. The sound of sustained gunfire could also be heard in one post, seemingly trying to shoot a drone down. Explosions were heard from the same central Kyiv district where a missile strike a week ago tore a hole in a children’s playground.
Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, wrote in a post on the Telegram social media site that Russian forces struck Kyiv with Iranian Shahed drones. Russia has repeatedly been using the so-called suicide drones in recent weeks to target urban centers and infrastructure, including power stations.
“The Russians think it will help them, but it shows their desperation,” he said, according to AFP.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russia had launched drone and missile attacks across Ukraine but that they wouldn’t “break” Ukrainians, AFP reported.”All night and all morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. 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 said
Strikes in central Kyiv became a rarity in the last several months after Russian forces failed to capture the capital in the beginning of the war. Last week’s early morning strikes were the first explosions heard in Kyiv’s city center in several months and put Kyiv as well as the rest of the country back on edge as the war nears the nine month mark.
Monday’s blasts seemed to continue what many fear could become more common occurrences in urban centers. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week’s strikes were in retaliation for the bombing of a bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula with the Russian mainland. Putin blames Ukraine for masterminding the blast, which suspended traffic over the bridge and curtailed Moscow’s ability to use the bridge to supply Russian troops in the occupied regions of southern Ukraine.
The strike on Kyiv comes as fighting has intensified in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in recent days, as well as the continued Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south near Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Zelenskyy said in his evening address Sunday that there was heavy fighting around the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donetsk region. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions make up the bulk of the industrial east known as the Donbas, and were two of four regions annexed by Russia in September in defiance of international law. On Sunday, the Russian-backed regime in the Donetsk region said Ukraine had shelled its central administrative building in a direct hit. No casualties were reported.
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