Russia launches largest drone attack since war began, days after Ukraine peace talks
The largest known Russian drone attack since war began in 2022 killed a woman in the Kyiv region and injured at least three people, Ukrainian authorities said early on Sunday, as Moscow stepped up strikes following Russia launched 273 drones by 8am local time, targeting chiefly the central Kyiv region and the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions in the country's east, Ukraine's air force said. Based on data provided by the air force, this was Russia's largest drone attack on Ukraine during the war.
The sustained overnight Russian drone attack on Sunday killed a 28-year-old woman in the capital region and injured at least three people, including a 4-year-old child, Ukrainian authorities said. Kyiv, the region around it and the eastern part of Ukraine were under raid warnings for nine straight hours overnight before they were called off at around 9am local time. Air defence units were engaged several times trying to repel attacks, the military said on Telegram. "It's been a tough night. The Russians have always used war and attacks to intimidate everyone in negotiations," Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Centre for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram about Sunday's attack.
All of those injured in the Obukhiv district just south of Kyiv city were hospitalised, Kalashnik said. Several residential buildings were damaged in the area, he added. In the city of Kyiv, fragments of a destroyed drone damaged the roof of a non-residential building, the city's military administration said on Telegram. There were no reports of injuries, it added. Witnesses in and around Kyiv heard blasts that sounded like air defence units in operation. There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, but thousands have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
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