Drone strikes hit Kiev early Monday morning, damaging a residential building and injuring an unknown number of people due to repeated attacks on the Ukrainian capital by Russian forces over the past week.
Kyiv City Mayor Vitaliy Klichko announced that Shevchenko district has been hit, urging residents to take refuge. Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, confirmed that a residential building was hit during the attacks, but officials have not released details on the victims.
Klichko reported that several apartment buildings were damaged, as well as a fire in a non-residential building.
Black smoke and flames were seen near the apparent strikes. The sounds of the blast were reportedly heard in the same district of Kiev where a missile recently destroyed a children’s playground.
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Firefighters work after a drone fired on buildings in Kiev, Ukraine on Monday, October 17, 2022.
(Photo AP / Efrem Lukatsky)
Russian forces have been attacking Kiev consistently with so-called “kamikaze” drones over the past week. The Shahed-136 drones, manufactured in Iran, have been used by Russia to target vital energy infrastructures and urban centers.
A recent report from the Institute for the Study of War theorized that troops from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) may have traveled to Russian-controlled territories to help train Putin’s troops.
The use of the Shahed-136 drones increased after the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The annexation of Vladimir Putin of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in September. Strikes in central Kiev were rare events before Putin’s illegal annexation, denounced by Western leaders.
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A drone was seen in the sky seconds before it fired on buildings in Kiev, Ukraine on Monday, October 17, 2022.
(Photo AP / Efrem Lukatsky)
Putin defended the strikes last week, saying there were reprisals against Ukrainian forces who bombed a Crimean bridge.
Over the weekend, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, there were intense fighting around the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donetsk region, as well as in the Luhansk region.
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The Russian-backed government of the Donetsk region reported Sunday that its central administration building was directly hit by Ukraine, but reported no casualties.
Peter Aitken of Associated Press and Fox News contributed to this report.
