By Jack Mendel
Russia has deployed exploding drones in another night-time attack on Ukraine, officials said, as the Kremlin pressed its strategy of targeting civilian infrastructure to wear down resistance to its invasion.
The barrage was the latest in a series of relentless year-end attacks, including one that killed three civilians on New Year’s Eve.
According to the Telegraph, the Ukrainian air force shot down 39 Iranian-made Shahed drones, two Orlan-10s and a Kh-59 guided air missile, as reported in a Telegram post.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Monday that 40 drones “headed for Kyiv” overnight. All of them were destroyed, according to air defence forces.
He said 22 drones were destroyed over Kyiv, three in the outlying region and 15 in neighbouring provinces.
Energy infrastructure facilities were damaged in the attacks and an explosion occurred in one city district, Mr Klitschko said. It was not immediately clear whether that was caused by drones or other munitions.
A wounded 19-year-old man was taken hospital, the mayor added, and emergency power outages were under way in the capital.
In the outlying Kyiv region a “critical infrastructure object” and residential buildings were hit, governor Oleksiy Kuleba said.
Russia has carried out air strikes on Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of “energy terrorism” as the aerial bombardments have left many people without heat amid freezing temperatures.
Ukrainian officials say Moscow is “weaponising winter” in its effort to demoralise the Ukrainian resistance.
Ukraine is using sophisticated western-supplied weapons to shoot down Russia’s missiles and drones, as well as send artillery fire into Russian-held areas of the country.
Moscow’s invasion launched on February 24 has stalled, putting pressure on President Vladimir Putin as his ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance.
He said in his new year address to the nation that 2022 was “a year of difficult, necessary decisions”.
He insists he had no choice but to send troops into Ukraine because it threatened Russia’s security — an assertion condemned by the West which says Moscow bears full responsibility for the invasion.
Russia is observing public holidays until January 8.
Drones, missiles and artillery shells launched by Russian forces also struck areas across Ukraine.
Five people were wounded in the Monday morning shelling of a Ukraine-controlled area of the southern Kherson region, governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said.
Russian forces attacked the city of Beryslav, he said, firing at a local market. Three of the wounded are in serious condition, he added.
Seven drones were shot down over the southern Mykolaiv region, according to governor Vitali Kim, and three more in the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a missile was also destroyed, according to Mr Reznichenko, who said energy infrastructure was being targeted.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported on Monday that 39 Iranian-made exploding Shahed drones were shot down overnight, as well as two Russian-made Orlan drones and an X-59 missile.
“We are staying strong,” the defence ministry tweeted.
A New Year’s Eve assault killed at least four civilians across the country, Ukrainian authorities reported, and wounded dozens. The fourth victim, a 46-year-old resident of Kyiv, died in hospital on Monday morning, Mr Klitschko said.
Multiple blasts rocked the capital and other areas of Ukraine on Saturday and through the night.
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone hit an energy facility in the Bryansk region which borders Ukraine, governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Monday morning, and a village was left without power as a result.
Press Association
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