Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday hailed his country’s air defence forces and rescue services after the capital withstood the largest Russian drone attack since the beginning of the invasion.
“You look up to destroy enemy missiles, aircraft, helicopters, and drones. Every time you shoot down enemy drones and missiles, lives are saved... you are heroes!” Zelensky said, also thanking rescuers.
His words came after Russia unleashed the “most important” assault by drones on Kyiv overnight since the start of the invasion, but nearly all were destroyed, military authorities said.
Forty of the 54 drones, launched as the Ukrainian capital prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its founding on Sunday, targeted the capital, killing at least one person.
“In total a record number of explosive drones launched were counted: 54!” Ukraine’s air force said in a Telegram post on Sunday.
“It’s the most important drone attack against the capital since the start of the invasion” in February 2022, the regional military administration said on Telegram.
The attack “took place over several waves and the air raid alert lasted more than five hours”.
“According to preliminary reports more than 40 Russian drones were destroyed by air defence” systems over Kyiv, the administration added.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it downed 52 out of the 54 Russia-launched drones, calling it a record attack with the Iranian-made ‘kamikaze’ drones.
It said Moscow was targeting “military installations and critical infrastructure in the centre of the country and in particular the Kyiv region”.
It appeared to be the first deadly attack on Kyiv in May and the 14th assault since the start of the month.
The predawn attacks came on the last Sunday of May when the capital celebrates Kyiv Day, the anniversary of its official founding 1,541 years ago. The day is typically marked by street fairs, live concerts and special museum exhibitions – plans for which have been made this year too, but on a smaller scale.
“The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for the insecure Russians,” Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said on his Telegram channel.
“Today, the enemy decided to ‘congratulate’ the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVs (unstaffed aerial vehicles),” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
One civilian died in Kyiv, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Sunday. “A 35-year-old woman was hospitalised, a 41-year-old man died,” the mayor and former boxer said on Telegram, reporting that drone wreckage had crashed near a petrol station.
He said Kyiv’s air defences had shot down “more than 20 drones” headed for the city, and implored city residents: “Stay in shelters. The attack is massive!”
Several districts of Kyiv, by far the largest Ukrainian city with a population of around 3 million, suffered in the overnight attacks, officials said, including the historical Pecherskyi neighbourhood, where a fire broke out on the roof of a building due to falling drone debris.
In the leafy Holosiivskyi district in the southwestern part of Kyiv, falling debris set a three-storey warehouse on fire, destroying about 1,000 square metres (10,800 square feet) of building structures, Klitschko said.
A fire also broke out after falling drone debris hit a seven-storey non-residential building in the Solomyanskyi district west of the city. The area is a busy rail and air transport hub.
In the Darnytskyi district a shop was damaged, Kyiv’s military administration officials said on Telegram.
Reuters witnesses said that during the air raid alerts that started soon after midnight, many people stood on their balconies, some screaming offensives directed at Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and “Glory to air defence” slogans.
With a Ukrainian counteroffensive looming 15 months into the war, Moscow has intensified missile and drone strikes after a lull of nearly two months, targeting military facilities and supplies. Waves of attacks now come several times a week.
As the drone war rages, Russia has over the part few weeks seen its own territory attacked as well, blaming Ukraine for dozens of artillery, mortar and drone strikes on the southern Belgorod region.
The reports of drone attacks and sabotage raids in Russian regions bordering Ukraine come at a time when Kyiv says it is finalising plans for a major counteroffensive to recover lost territory, including the Crimea peninsula, occupied by Moscow’s forces.
But drones can also strike hundreds of kilometres inside Russia. Russia’s defence ministry has vowed an “extremely harsh” response to any further attacks on its soil.