KYIV: Russia’s overnight drone attack on Kyiv damaged several residential buildings and set cars on fire throughout the city, the military and officials of the Ukrainian capital said on Sunday.
Falling debris from destroyed drones sparked fires at residential buildings in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts, Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on social media.
He added that several cars throughout the city also caught fire from falling drone debris.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app that medics were called to the Sviatoshynskyi district, west of the city centre, where they provided assistance.
Reuters’ witnesses heard several explosions in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.
There was no immediate information on the full-scale of the attack. Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air-raid alerts for about an hour, starting soon after midnight on Sunday local time (2100 GMT).
There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the attack that took place amidst uncertainty over whether both sides will stop war activities during Moscow’s May 8-10 commemorations of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two. On Monday, Russia declared a three-day ceasefire for May 8-10, to which Kyiv responded with a proposal to stop war activities for 30 days. Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started more than three years ago with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ihor Taburets, governor of the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy, said a Russian drone attack on the region late on Saturday sparked several fires. According to preliminary information, there were no injuries, Taburets said on Telegram.
