Greatest drone assault on Kyiv because the begin of the conflict – Ukrainian officers
Ukrainian officers are calling the raid on Kyiv the most important drone assault on town because the begin of the conflict.
Ukraine’s Air Drive mentioned it downed 52 out of the 54 Russia-launched drones, calling it a report assault with the Iranian-made ‘kamikaze’ drones. It was not instantly clear how most of the drones have been shot over Kyiv.
Air Drive mentioned on Telegram that Russia had focused navy and important infrastructure services within the central areas of Ukraine, and the Kyiv area particularly.
Serhiy Popko, the top of Kyiv’s navy administration mentioned earlier that preliminary data indicated the air raid is the most important drone assault because the begin of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
He added that Russia used the Iranian-made Shahed drones within the assault, he added. Reuters was not in a position to independently confirm that data.
“Immediately, the enemy determined to ‘congratulate’ the folks of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the assistance of their lethal UAVs (unmanned aerial autos),” Popko mentioned on the Telegram messaging app.
“The assault was carried out in a number of waves, and the air alert lasted greater than 5 hours.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Iran earlier this week to rethink the provision of lethal drones to Russia to be able to cease their slide into “the darkish aspect of historical past”. However Iran on Saturday mentioned his feedback have been actually designed to draw extra arms and monetary support from the West.
Key occasions
Abstract
Welcome again to our dwell protection of Russia’s conflict on Ukraine. That is Christine Kearney and right here’s an outline of the most recent.
Russia carried out a significant two-wave in a single day air assault on Kyiv that killed a minimum of one particular person, officers mentioned, calling it the largest drone assault on the capital but because the begin of the conflict, as Kyiv prepares to have fun its birthday on Sunday.
The pre-dawn assaults got here on the final Sunday of Might when the capital celebrates Kyiv Day, the anniversary of its official founding 1,541 years in the past. Ukraine says it shot down greater than 40 drones.
Extra on that story quickly. In different information:
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Preliminary operations have begun to pave the best way for a counteroffensive in opposition to Russian occupying forces, a Ukrainian presidential adviser has mentioned. “It’s a sophisticated course of, which isn’t a matter of at some point or a sure date or a sure hour,” Mykhailo Podolyak mentioned in an interview with the Guardian. “It’s an ongoing technique of deoccupation, and sure processes are already occurring, like destroying provide strains or blowing up depots behind the strains.
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The commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, raised expectations {that a} main operation could possibly be imminent by declaring on social media: “The time has come to take again what’s ours.” Zaluzhny’s declaration on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday was accompanied by a cinematic video displaying closely armed Ukrainian troopers making ready for battle.
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Ukraine’s defence ministry has claimed Russia is planning to simulate a significant accident on the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy station to attempt to thwart Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive. The plant, in an space of Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, has been repeatedly hit by shelling that every aspect blames the opposite for.
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Russian forces have briefly eased their assaults on the besieged jap Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut to regroup and strengthen their capabilities, a senior Kyiv official mentioned on Saturday. Russia’s Wagner non-public military started handing over its positions to common Russian troops this week after declaring full management of Bakhmut after the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict, Reuters reported. In a press release on Telegram, the deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, mentioned Russian forces have continued attacking however that “general offensive exercise has decreased”.
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Russian forces have intercepted two long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles equipped to Ukraine by Britain, the RIA information company cited the defence ministry as saying on Saturday. Reuters experiences that the ministry mentioned it had intercepted shorter-range US-built Himars-launched and Hurt missiles, and shot down 13 drones within the final 24 hours, RIA reported.
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Defeat in its conflict in opposition to Ukraine would go away Russia “vindictive” and “brutal” and posing a risk to Nato international locations, the outgoing head of the RAF mentioned. Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston instructed The Telegraph that Russia’s air power, floor navy and submarine power are a risk to Britain and Nato. He warned its risk may even worsen if the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was ousted.
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A development employee has been killed close to the Russian village of Plekhovo, just a few kilometres from the border with Ukraine after shelling from the Ukrainian aspect, mentioned Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk area. Works have been being carried out not removed from Plekhovo on fortifying defensive strains for the state border, the governor mentioned on Telegram.
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Ukraine struck oil pipeline installations deep inside Russia on Saturday with a sequence of drone assaults together with on a station serving the huge Druzhba oil pipeline that sends western Siberian crude to Europe, in keeping with Russian media. Ukrainian drone assaults inside Russia have been rising in depth in latest weeks, and the New York Occasions reported that US intelligence believes Ukraine was behind a drone assault on the Kremlin earlier this month.
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Ukraine has requested Germany to provide it with Taurus cruise missiles, an air-launched weapon with a variety of 500 km (310 miles), a spokesperson for the defence ministry in Berlin mentioned on Saturday. Germany acquired the request a number of days in the past, the spokesperson mentioned, confirming a report by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She declined to offer additional particulars or say how possible it was that Germany would provide the missiles to Ukraine.