A drone strike hit Kyiv early Monday morning, damaging residential buildings and injuring an unknown number of people in repeated attacks by Russian forces on the Ukrainian capital over the past week.
Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced that the Shevchenko district was affected and urged residents to evacuate. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister, confirmed that homes were hit during the attack, but officials have not released details about casualties.
Klitschko reported that several apartments were damaged in addition to the fires in non-residential buildings.
Black smoke and flames were seen near the supposed impact site. The explosion was reportedly heard in the same Kyiv district where the missile recently destroyed a children’s playground.
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Russian forces have consistently attacked Kyiv with so-called “kamikaze” drones over the past week. Iran-made Shahed-136 drones are being used by Russia to target critical energy infrastructure and urban centers.
A recent report by the Institute for War Studies theorizes that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units may have moved into Russian-held territory to help train Putin’s troops. .
After the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the use of Shahed-136 drones increased. Annexation of Vladimir Putin Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in September. Strikes in central Kyiv were rare before Putin’s illegal annexation.
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Putin has defended last week’s airstrikes in retaliation for the Ukrainian military’s bombing of a Crimean bridge.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, heavy fighting took place over the weekend in the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donetsk region, as well as in the Luhansk region.
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The Russian-backed government in the Donetsk region reported on Sunday that its central administration building was hit directly by Ukraine, but reported no casualties.
Peter Aitken of the Associated Press and Fox News contributed to this report.