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.A smoke rises after a drone fired on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022.
The capital’s central
Shevchenko district was among the areas hit, with apartment blocks damaged and
a non-residential building on fire, Kyiv city 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.
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.A drone is seen in the sky seconds before it fired on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022.
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.
Russian forces struck Kyiv
with Iranian Shahed drones, wrote Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian
president’s office, in a post on the Telegram social media site. Russia has
repeatedly been using the so-called suicide drones in recent weeks to target
urban centers and infrastructure, including power stations.
Strikes in central Kyiv had
become a rarity in the last several months after Russian forces failed to
capture the capital at 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 nine months. 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. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Sunday
evening address 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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