Kyiv Rocked by 'Massive Drone Attack' in Largest Assault of the War So Far

Kyiv was rocked by a huge drone attack in the early hours of Saturday, in what officials have described as the largest assault on the Ukrainian capital since the war began.

At least five people, including an 11-year-old boy, were injured by falling drone debris in the capital. Ukraine's Air Force reported that Russia launched a record number of Shahed attack drones across the country. Air-defense systems shot down 71 drones across six regions, as well as a Kh-59 cruise missile. The Kremlin has yet to comment on the attack. Newsweek has contacted the foreign ministries of Russia and Ukraine for comment via email.

Russian forces have frequently used Shahed drones, also known as "kamikaze" or suicide drones, throughout the war launched by President Vladimir Putin in February 2022.

"A total of nearly 75 Shahed drones were launched from two directions – Primorsko-Akhtarsk and the Kursk region, Russia. The primary target was the city of Kyiv," the Air Force said on Telegram. "Anti-aircraft missile troops, tactical aviation, mobile fire groups, and electronic warfare units were involved in repelling the air attack."

Russia's renewed Ukraine-wide aerial onslaught comes as Kyiv presses on with its grinding counteroffensive. Ukraine launched its long-anticipated counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory in early June.

In Kyiv, drone debris fell on both residential and non-residential buildings in the Solomianskyi, Dniprovskyi and Holosiivskyi districts, said Vitali Klitschko, the city's mayor.

Videos circulating on social media showed drones descending on the Ukrainian capital.

Serhiy Popko, the head of the capital's military administration, said a fire had erupted on the premises of a kindergarten in the Solomianskyi district.

The air-raid warning in Kyiv, Klitschko said, lasted six hours. Popko described the drone attack as the "most massive" since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

Ukrainian officials highlighted that the drone assault coincided with the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor famine of 1932-33, during which several million people starved to death.

"A massive drone attack on the capital on such tragic days for Ukraine—the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-33. The days when we honor the innocent victims of the Stalinist regime," said Ruslan Stefanchuk, the chairman of Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliamentary body.

"And on these days we see the face of the Putin regime,"Stefanchuk wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Wilful terror... The Russian leadership is proud of the fact that it can kill," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said 77 residential buildings and 120 institutions were left without electricity in the center of Kyiv.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.