Russia targeted Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with drones, killing three people in their homes and injuring 29, authorities say.
Of the 29 people injured, seven are children, in the second consecutive nighttime attack on Kyiv to claim civilian lives. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, said a 19-year-old woman and her 46-year-old mother were among those killed.
Russian drones also caused fires in two residential buildings in the capital’s Desnianskyi district. Emergency crews evacuated civilians from a nine-story and a 16-story building, putting out flames and clearing the rubbles.
Olha Yevhenivha, 74, a resident in Kyiv said there was so much smoke from the fire that she couldn’t leave her apartment.
“Even until now our windows are totally black from the smoke, and it was impossible to go down, so that’s why we put wet blankets on our doors and balcony,” she said.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 101 drones overnight into Sunday, according to Ukraine’s air force, of which 90 were shot down and neutralized. Five drones hit four locations and drone debris fell on five other places, the statement said.
The attack came a day after Russian missiles and drones killed four people, including two in Kyiv, prompting fresh pleas from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Western air defense systems.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Sunday that over the previous day, its forces struck energy facilities and rail infrastructure serving Ukraine’s war effort, as well as other military targets such as troop deployment points and a drone factory.
It did not comment specifically on strikes on Kyiv, nor on the civilian casualties reported by Ukraine.
In Russia’s Bryansk region near Ukraine, two civilians were hospitalized following Ukrainian drone strikes, according to regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz. At least 26 Ukrainian drones were downed over southwestern Russia on Sunday, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.
AP/Jide Johnson.