The Ukrainian army announced on Friday that it repelled a Russian attack by Iranian drones on the country, including Kyiv, the day after overnight Russian bombing.
“During the night of December 29-30, the enemy attacked Ukraine with Iranian-made suicide drones,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement published on social media.
A total of sixteen drones were fired from the southeast and north and “all” were destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses, the statement said.
In Kyiv, authorities in the Ukrainian capital announced an air alert at 02:12 (00:12 GMT) that lasted just over two hours.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko later said Kyiv was attacked by seven drones, two of which were shot down “on approach” to the capital and five more over the city.
There were no injuries, but falling debris damaged the windows of two buildings in a southwestern district of Kyiv, he added.
Volleys of Russian missiles were fired across the country on Thursday. They left “three dead and six injured, including a child,” according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi.
According to the Ukrainian army, 54 of the 69 cruise missiles launched by Russia were shot down, as were 11 Iranian-made Shahed drones.
These attacks come as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its tenth month. Russian missiles are specifically targeting the country’s energy infrastructure, depriving millions of people of power in the middle of winter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy complained on Thursday evening about “power outages in most regions of Ukraine”.