KYIV: Ukraine stated on Saturday (Nov 25) it had downed 74 out of 75 drones Russia launched at it in a single day, in what it stated was the greatest such assault for the reason that begin of the invasion.
The Ukrainian military stated Russia had launched a “report quantity” of Iranian-made Shahed drones, nearly all of which focused Kyiv, inflicting energy cuts as temperatures dipped under freezing.
The drone assault got here as Ukraine marked Holodomor Remembrance Day, commemorating the Thirties hunger of thousands and thousands in Ukraine underneath Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
“The enemy launched a report variety of assault drones at Ukraine! The primary path of the assault is Kyiv,” stated the commander of Ukraine’s air drive, Basic Mykola Oleshchuk.
The air drive stated it had downed “74 out of 75” Shahed drones.
Kyiv authorities stated 5 folks – together with an 11-year-old – had been wounded within the capital, the place the air raid lasted six hours.
Falling drone particles had sparked fires and broken buildings throughout town, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko stated.
AFP noticed Kyiv residents clearing smashed home windows and different injury within the metropolis’s Dniprovsky district, with ambulances parked close by.
One of many buildings that was broken housed a nursery and one other had a part of its high ground destroyed.
Native resident Viktor Vasylenko stated he had soothed his younger daughter, who skilled “panic and nausea” through the lengthy night-time assaults as they sheltered in a hall.
The 38-year-old stated his household at all times has “every little thing ready” in case of such assaults however this was the primary time one had hit so shut.
“My spouse thought that the home would collapse in half,” he stated.
Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkevics, on a go to to Kyiv through the assault, posted a photograph of himself on social media inside a darkish bomb shelter.
In an announcement, the French international ministry condemned the drone barrage “with the utmost firmness”.
Greater than 21 months into Moscow’s offensive, preventing is most intense within the east of Ukraine and is now centred across the metropolis of Avdiivka, which is almost encircled by Russian forces.
