Ukrainian forces in Kyiv say they shot down 36 Russian missiles and drones in and around the capital overnight, with two people injured by falling debris before authorities lifted air raid alerts across most of the country.
Russia has launched about 20 missile and drone attacks on Kyiv since the beginning of May, a surge in strikes that the government says appears aimed at derailing Ukraine’s preparations for a major counteroffensive.
An Air Force statement on Friday said its air defences had shot down 15 cruise missiles and 21 drones.
It said a wave of drones had been launched late on Thursday, followed by a volley of cruise missiles as people slept about 3am local time.
“The occupiers are not stopping their attempts to terrorise the Ukrainian capital with strike drones and missiles,” it said.
The capital’s military authorities, writing on Telegram, praised the city’s air defences and said there were no reports of damage or casualties.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who earlier reported two separate waves of attacks, wrote on Telegram there had been no calls for rescue services.
In the region outside Kyiv, authorities said two people were injured as a result of falling debris, including a child.
“In addition, the falling debris damaged five private houses,” the state administration said on the Telegram messaging service.
Ukraine says it destroys the majority of the missiles and drones Russian forces use in attacks, but a nine-year-old girl was among three people killed in a missile strike on Kyiv on Thursday after the shelter they rushed to failed to open.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said if local officials were unable to provide protection, they could be prosecuted.
Russian officials reported two villages in the western Bryansk region were shelled by Ukrainian forces on Friday but no one was injured.
Reuters could not immediately verify the reported attacks on Lomakovka and Novaya Pogoshch villages, located close to the border with Ukraine’s Chernihiv and Sumy regions.
Two long-range drones attacked fuel and energy infrastructure in Russia’s western Smolensk region overnight on Friday, but no injuries or fires were reported, the region’s acting governor said.
He said the attacks hit the towns of Divasy and Peresna near the region’s capital Smolensk, some 270km from the Ukrainian border, but did not say who was responsible.
Russian officials have reported intensified attacks from northern Ukraine and said on Thursday Ukrainian troops attempted to cross the border into the Belgorod region, the first such incursion.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Friday at least one incident of shelling had been reported overnight in the Shebekino district, and more than 2500 people were being evacuated from the area.
Ukraine denies its military is involved in the incursions and says they are conducted by Russian volunteer fighters.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation” to “denazify” the country, protect Russian speakers and defend its borders from aggressive Western ambitions.
Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Putin of barbaric tactics and an imperialist-style land grab in Ukraine.
Australian Associated Press