Days after the Ukrainian capital survived one of the largest missile attacks since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February, drones targeted Kyiv early on Monday.
The most recent attacks took place while Russian President Vladimir Putin was traveling to Belarus, Ukraine’s northern neighbor, where troops stationed by Moscow as part of a regional force were scheduled to conduct military drills.
“23 hostile UAVs were observed in the sky over the capital during the air alert. 18 drones were destroyed by air defense, the military administration of Kyiv city posted on social media.
It also stated that the Russian forces were employing barrage rounds from “Shaheds,” Iranian-made weaponry that have recently pounded the capital.
At 1:56 am (2356 GMT), Kyiv’s civil administration issued an initial air alarm that lasted for slightly over three hours. Within a half-hour, a second siren set to sound at 5:24 am (03:24 GMT) was cancelled.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated that there had been “explosions” in the western Solomianskyi district and the capital’s Shevchenkivskyi neighborhood.
He claimed that vital infrastructure facilities were “damaged,” yet no confirmed victims were reported.
Following the incident, emergency power cuts will be implemented throughout the capital, according to Ukrainian energy provider DTEK.
Since Russia’s invasion in late February, Ukraine has experienced regular and deadly aerial assaults.
This summer and fall, Moscow changed its tactics and intensified its aerial assault in response to a string of significant battlefield defeats and lost territory.
However, when temperatures dropped, the missile and drone attacks cut off water and heat supplies to millions of Ukrainians, leaving communities all over the nation in the dark.
Putin will travel to Belarus.
The European Union and France have deemed Russia’s attack on civilian infrastructure to be war crimes, with the EU’s top diplomat describing the airstrikes as “barbaric.”
The national electricity provider was forced to impose emergency rolling blackouts as it hurried to rebuild the devastated energy grid on Saturday following a significant attack on several cities on Friday that involved more than 70 missiles.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, nine million people got their energy restored as of Sunday night.
Zelensky added that the situation on Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus was a “continuous priority” in his nightly presentation.
Zelensky stated, “We are ready for all potential defense scenarios, and the border issue was discussed during a conference with my military leaders.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus since 1994 and a longtime ally of the Kremlin, permitted Russian soldiers to use Belarusian territory as a base for their invasion.
Putin will be paying Lukashenko a visit on Monday in the nation’s capital, Minsk, for the first time in more than three years.
Russian forces will undertake military drills in Belarus, the Moscow defense ministry was quoted as saying earlier on Monday by the Interfax news agency.
A unified regional force between Belarus and Moscow was announced in October, and several thousand Russian personnel began to arrive in the former Soviet nation.
It was unclear how long the drills would last or where or when they would take place.
There were worries that Belarusian troops would join Russian forces in their offensive in Ukraine as a result of the deployment of Russian forces in Belarus.
