Russia launches largest drone attack on Kyiv since war began

Volodymyr Zelensky praised Ukraine’s air defence troops after Russia unleashed its largest wave of drone attacks on Kyiv since the start of the war.

Explosions and air-raid sirens were heard in Kyiv and 12 other regions in Ukraine during the latest bombardment. At least one person was killed and a number of fires started.

Ukraine’s general staff said air defences shot down 58 out of 59 Iranian-made “suicide” drones launched by Moscow in the early hours of Sunday morning, in what the authorities claimed to be a record attack using the “Shahed” weapon.

“Another night attack was directed by the enemy at military facilities and facilities of the state's critical infrastructure in the central regions of the country, in particular at the Kyiv region,” it added in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

More than 40 of those drones were downed over Kyiv, according to the city’s military administration, with high-powered searchlights used to scour the sky to find any that had evaded radar detection.

"Every time you shoot down enemy drones and missiles, lives are saved... you are heroes!" Mr Zelensky said in an address to air defence forces on the Telegram messaging app.

It was the first deadly attack on the capital in May. Vitali Klitchko, the city’s mayor, said a 41-year-old man was killed and three people injured when debris from a downed drone fell on a petrol station in the south-western Holosiivskyi district of the capital.

Other falling fragments sparked a fire at a three-story warehouse, destroying some 1,000 square metres of buildings, he added.

Another blaze broke out in the western district of Solomianskyi, a busy rail and air hub, when debris struck a seven-storey non-residential building.

In the Pecherskyi district, a fire broke out on the roof of a nine-story building, while a shop was damaged in Darnytskyi district, officials said.

The pre-dawn attack was carried out in several waves, said Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv's military administration, while the air alerts lasted more than five hours.

With the long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive looming, Russia has intensified its air strikes.

While some strikes target military sites and supply hubs, rockets and drones also frequently hit densely populated areas.

The bombardments often involve multiple drones or missiles in what is likely an attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian air-defence systems.

Fatalities are rare, however. A complex network of air-defence systems, such as the US-made Patriot and Nasams, protect the skies above the capital and other key cities.

The systems have created a growing confidence among officials in Kyiv that Moscow is simply wasting its arsenal of long-range, high-precision weapons in the process.

Some officials accused Russia of deliberately launching its latest attack as residents prepared to celebrate Kyiv Day – the anniversary of the city's foundation more than 1,500 years ago.

"The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for the insecure Russians," Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky's chief of staff, wrote on Telegram.

"The enemy decided to 'congratulate' the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVs," Mr Popko said.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that Western nations were “playing with fire” by agreeing to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, describing the move as an “unacceptable escalation” of the conflict.

In a Russian television interview, Mr Lavrov said: “It's playing with fire, without a doubt”.

Mr Lavrov denounced the move as an attempt to “weaken Russia” by “Washington, London and their satellites in the EU.”