- Russia fired 75 drones into Ukraine – Air Force
- Zelensky condemns the attack on the day that marked Ukraine’s worst tragedy
KYIV, Nov 25 (Portal) – Ukraine’s capital suffered what officials said was Russia’s biggest drone attack of the war on Saturday, injuring five people as rumbles of air defenses and explosions struck residents at sunrise after a week of intensified attacks woke up.
Saturday’s six-hour air raid, as Ukraine commemorates the 1932-33 Holodomor famine that killed several million people, began hitting various districts of Kiev in the early hours of the morning, with more waves coming as the sun rose.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia carried out 911 attacks across the country during the week, killing 19 Ukrainians and wounding 84.
“The enemy is increasing its attacks and trying to destroy Ukraine and Ukrainians,” he said in a post on the messaging app Telegram. This was done deliberately, “just like 90 years ago when Russia killed millions of our ancestors,” he said.
The Ukrainian Air Force initially said 71 of the 75 drones had been shot down, but later revised the number of aircraft shot down to 74. Its spokesman said on television that 66 of those drones were shot down over Kiev and the surrounding region.
Air Force Chief Mykola Oleschuk praised the effectiveness of the “mobile fire” units – usually fast pickup trucks with a machine gun or anti-aircraft cannon mounted on the bed. According to him, they shot down almost 40% of the drones.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram app that five people were injured in the attack, including an 11-year-old girl, and buildings in districts across the city were damaged.
[1/12]Employees carry items inside a building of a kindergarten that was damaged in Russian drone strikes during Russia’s attack on Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine, Nov. 25, 2023. Portal/Valentyn Ogirenko acquires license rights
Fragments from a downed drone caused a fire in a kindergarten, he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky also noted that the attack came in the early hours of commemorations of the famine, recognized by Ukraine and over 30 other countries as a genocide by the Soviet Union, which then ruled Ukraine and tried to crush it Desire for independence.
“Deliberate terror… The Russian leadership is proud of its ability to kill,” he wrote on Telegram.
Moscow denies that the starvation deaths were caused by a deliberate genocidal policy and says Russians and other ethnic groups also suffered.
The target of Saturday’s attack was not immediately clear, but Ukraine has warned in recent weeks that Russia will again carry out an airstrike to destroy Ukraine’s energy system, as it attempted last winter.
The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said nearly 200 buildings in the capital, including 77 residential buildings, were left without power as a result of the attack.
“It looks like we heard the overture tonight. The start of the winter season,” Serhiy Fursa, a well-known Ukrainian economist, wrote on Facebook.
Reporting by Max Hunder and Nick Starkov in Kiev; Additional reporting by Ron Popeski and Elaine Monaghan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Alexandra Hudson, Mark Potter and Diane Craft
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