Ukraine said on Saturday it had shot down 74 of 75 Russian drones overnight, the largest such attack since the invasion began.
Ukraine's military said Russia had fired a "record number" of Iranian-made Shahed drones, most of them aimed at Kiev, causing power outages as temperatures plunged below freezing. "The enemy launched a record number of strike drones against Ukraine! The main direction of the attack was Kiev," said the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, General Mykola Oleschuk. The Air Force said it had shot down "74 of 75" drones. Authorities in Kiev said five people, including an 11-year-old child, were injured in the capital, where the airstrike lasted six hours. Falling debris from drones caused fires and damaged buildings across the city, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
AFP saw Kyiv residents clearing broken windows and other damage in the Dnipro region with ambulances parked nearby. One of the damaged buildings housed a kindergarten, and another part of the upper floor was destroyed.
Local resident Viktor Vasilenko said he calmed his young daughter, who had experienced "panic and nausea" during the long night-long attacks, while they hid in the hallway. The 38-year-old said his family always had "everything prepared" in case of such attacks, but this was the first time someone had struck so close. "My wife thought the house was going to collapse in half," he said.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevičs, who was visiting Kiev at the time of the attack, posted a photo of himself on social media in a dark bomb shelter. Dozens of buildings were left without power after the attacks, but Ukraine's energy ministry said electricity was later restored. More than 21 months after the start of Moscow's offensive, fighting is most intense in eastern Ukraine and is now centered around the town of Avdeyevka, which is nearly surrounded by Russian forces. /BGNES
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