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KYIV – Russia fired a fierce swarm of explosive drones at Kiev and other targets early Saturday, breaking weeks of relative lull in the Ukrainian capital and adding to its darker mood.
The Ukrainian military said air defenses destroyed 74 of 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones during a six-hour attack that included dozens of the weapons aimed at Kiev. The city’s mayor said it was the largest drone attack since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
All unmanned ships flying toward Kiev were intercepted and destroyed, although falling debris hit a kindergarten, ignited several fires and injured five people, including an 11-year-old child, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram.
The loudest day in weeks, if not months, was a reminder of more tough days ahead – many Ukrainians expect Russia to attack civilian infrastructure throughout the winter. But in Kiev in recent weeks that fear has subsided into an eerie calm.
“To be honest, in Kiev we don’t feel the war so much anymore,” said Mykola Yarmoluk, 68, a retired member of Ukraine’s diplomatic service, just days before the Saturday morning drone strike.
Yarmoluk said the many burnt and rusted wrecks of Russian tanks on display in the city had faded into the background, as had memories of nighttime air raid sirens and Russian air raids.
Sandbags are still piled up as defenses near key government buildings, and Kiev’s two airports remain destroyed. High-profile visitors, including US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was in the city last weekend, will still have to travel by land from Poland.
But for weeks there had been a general, if uneasy, calm in the capital, although heavy fighting continued on the eastern and southern fronts.
According to Ukrainian media, Russia sent waves of drones from different directions and on different flight paths in the nighttime attacks to confuse Ukraine’s air defenses.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on its Telegram channel that 15 out of 20 drones were shot down in the airspace of the Kiev, Poltava and Cherkasy regions. A Russian missile was fired at Kiev on November 11 but was intercepted, foiling the first attack of its kind after a 52-day standoff.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that Russia’s major drone strike was timed to coincide with the day Ukrainians commemorate the Holodomor, the famine brought about by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the early 1930s that killed millions of Ukrainians.
“We have one option: continue to live and continue to fight back,” said Yarmoluk, the retired diplomat. He said he and many other Ukrainians remain optimistic.
Despite the relative calm, the mood in Kiev had been darkening for weeks as senior military officials acknowledged that Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive had largely stalled and international attention shifted to the war in Gaza.
Officials in Kyiv have also watched cautiously as some Republicans in Congress blocked President Biden’s proposed additional aid to Ukraine and as Russian President Vladimir Putin offered support for his war effort from Iran and North Korea.
At home, the fighting spirit of determination and unity that had held the country together against a superior enemy has given way to the realization that the war is at an impasse and concern among Ukrainians that its terrible reckoning is falling on Russia, the far larger country , favored and better armed attacker.