Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight

AFP , Thursday 7 Nov 2024

Kyiv was targeted by another "massive" Russian drone attack that wounded two people, damaged buildings and sparked fires in several districts, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.

ukraine
Ukrainian rescuers work to extinguish a fire in a building following a drone attack in Kyiv on November 7, 2024. AFP

 

Officials meanwhile in the south and east of the country said Russian attacks had killed two Ukrainian civilians in Kherson and Sumy.

Russia has systematically targeted the capital with drone and missile barrages since the first day of its invasion launched nearly three years ago on February 24, 2022.

The capital was targeted by drone attacks on six days in the first week of November and 20 days in October, officials said.

"The attack took place in waves, from different directions, with drones entering the city at different altitudes -- both very low and high," the city administration said.

It added that more than 36 drones had been downed over the capital and the surrounding area and that falling debris had fallen on six districts of Kyiv and wounded two people.

AFP journalists heard air raid sirens ring out over the capital beginning shortly after midnight Kyiv time and the alert lasted some eight hours.

The reporters also heard drones buzzing over the city and air defence systems working to shoot down the drones.

The attack caused a fire in a 30-storey residential building in the city centre, and residents had to be evacuated, the mayor's office said.

The head of the Kherson region meanwhile said the body of a deceased man was recovered from the rubble of a house destroyed by the attack in a Russian attack overnight.

In the eastern Sumy region, the body of another killed person was recovered following a Russian airstrike hours earlier, the interior ministry said.

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