Russia launched its biggest drone attack of the war on Kyiv, just as the Ukrainian capital city was preparing to mark its founding 1,541 years ago Sunday, officials said.
The pre-dawn air strikes lasted more than five hours and at least one person was killed, said Serhii Popko, a senior Kyiv military official.
The assault came in the early hours of Kyiv Day, an anniversary traditionally celebrated with live music, street fairs and fireworks, although this year’s commemorative events were scaled back.
“The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for the insecure Russians,” Ukraine’s chief presidential aide, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram.
Popko, who called it the “most massive attack” on Kyiv, added: “Today, the enemy decided to ‘congratulate’ the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).”
Air defenses reportedly shot down more than 40 of the Iranian-made Shahed drones used by the Russian forces.
Victims of the attack on Kyiv were a 41-year-old man who was killed and a 35-year-old woman who was injured when debris fell on a seven-story nonresidential building and started a fire, local officials said.
Debris from a drone also damaged the building of the Ukrainian Society of the Blind.
After the attacks subsided, Volodymyr Golubenko, a member of the Society sorting through the rubble for his belongings, said the location had been a haven for many blind people.
“If you don’t even have a job, it’s difficult to get a job now, because these events [war] have been going on since last year. At least people come here to chat,” said Golubenko.
The overnight violence also marked a record-breaking number of Shahed drone attacks across Ukraine, its air force said.
Of the 54 drones launched, all but two were shot down by air defense systems, it said.
Russian drone attacks along its border with Ukraine have occurred on a regular basis since the official invasion in February 2022. The Russian attacks have become more frequent, often targeting infrastructure and military supply sites, as an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive is expected.
But while the attacks have been intensifying, Ukrainian air defenses, helped by sophisticated weaponry supplied by Western allies, have become skilled at fending off the drones and aircraft missiles.
Earlier this month, Ukraine thwarted what would have been a major Russian air attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s largest city with a population of about 3 million, by shooting down all the missiles that were aimed at the city.
Those included Russian Kinzhal aero-ballistic hypersonic missiles, praised by President Vladimir Putin as among his country’s most advanced weapons.
Speaking on the BBC Sunday, Russia’s ambassador to the U.K. threatened an escalation in response to increasing Western support for Ukraine.
Russia has “enormous resources” and was yet to “act very seriously,” but Western supplies of weapons to Ukraine risked escalation of the war to a “new dimension, said the ambassador, Andrei Kelin.
He said the length of the conflict “depends on the efforts in escalation of war that is being undertaken by NATO countries, especially by the U.K.”
While his remarks were considered typical of Russian rhetoric, experts said reports from the battlefield show Russian troops poorly trained and equipped.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, in the northeastern Kharkiv province, a 61-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man were killed in shelling attacks.
The death toll from a missile attack Friday on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro rose to four on Sunday, according to local officials.
The Russian attack on Dnipro, which wounded 32 people including two children, struck a building that housed psychology and veterinary clinics.
Also on Sunday, the head of the Wagner private paramilitary group that has been fighting for Russia in Ukraine said he believes top Kremlin officials have banned reporting about him on state media.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime member of Putin’s inner circle, said his role in the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut this month was played down on state television.
Wagner paramilitary troops led the Russian fight for Bakhmut in a battle that lasted more than eight months, and Prigozhin used his role to criticize Russian military leaders openly.
In what seemed to be an indication of how far Prigozhin had overstepped protocol, state television ignored the capture of Bakhmut for 20 hours and did not air his victory speech.
“I am absolutely convinced they have forbidden [coverage],” he said.
He also said 72,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the battle for Bakhmut. Neither side has released casualty numbers, but the ranks of the dead and wounded are believed to be very high.