(Kyiv) Ukraine shot down 29 Russian drones and missiles over Kyiv on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the capital’s military administration announced, with President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulating himself on the “effectiveness” of anti-aircraft defense.
“Missiles attacked Kyiv from the south in several waves. Almost simultaneously, enemy attack drones headed towards the capital from the same southern direction,” the Kyiv military administration said on Telegram.
AFP journalists present on site heard at least one explosion in the middle of the night, after the city’s air alert had been given.
Russia launched 24 drones and six missiles across the country, the debris of which sparked a fire in the region surrounding the capital, injuring one man, according to national police.
Ukrainian authorities said in total they had intercepted all of the drones and five of the six Russian missiles fired.
“Such a result […] can be our daily success if we have enough tools to repel terrorist attacks,” pleaded Volodymyr Zelensky in a message on social networks, a new call to the West to delivers other anti-aircraft defense systems to it.
Since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, Ukraine has steadily strengthened its air defense over the capital, where attacks have declined significantly compared to the first months of the Russian assault.
But elsewhere in the country, Ukraine does not have the same means.
Volodymyr Zelensky called once again on Tuesday, during a trip to Berlin, to “strengthen Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defense” in particular to defend the eastern region of Kharkiv, bordering Russia and the target of a new Russian offensive since on May 10.
American media reported that the United States, Kyiv’s main military and financial ally, would send a new Patriot air defense system in the coming days.
The last attack on Kyiv was on May 31, when a Russian Iskander-K cruise missile was shot down over the Ukrainian capital, causing a fire, according to the Kyiv military administration on Telegram.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian drone attack injured three civilians, including a 13-year-old boy, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the general prosecutor’s office.
Another strike of this type on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday “damaged” an energy installation in the Sumy region, bordering Russia, announced the public electricity company, Ukrenergo.
