WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia's drone attack on Kyiv sets several residential buildings on fire, Ukraine says

Russia's overnight drone attack on Kyiv damaged several residential buildings and set cars on fire throughout the city, the military and officials of the Ukrainian capital said on Sunday.

Falling debris from destroyed drones sparked fires at residential buildings in Kyiv's Obolonskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts, Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on social media.

He added that several cars throughout the city also caught fire from falling drone debris.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app that medics were called to the Sviatoshynskyi district, west of the city centre, where they provided assistance.

Reuters' witnesses heard several explosions in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.

There was no immediate information on the full-scale of the attack. Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air-raid alerts for about an hour, starting soon after midnight on Sunday local time (2100 GMT).

There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the attack that took place amidst uncertainty over whether both sides will stop war activities during Moscow's May 8-10 commemorations of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two.

On Monday, Russia declared a three-day ceasefire for May 8-10, to which Kyiv responded with a proposal to stop war activities for 30 days.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started more than three years ago with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ihor Taburets, governor of the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy, said a Russian drone attack on the region late on Saturday sparked several fires. According to preliminary information, there were no injuries, Taburets said on Telegram.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian drone strikes Russian Orthodox church

A Ukrainian drone has targeted a Russian Orthodox church in Belgorod Region, setting fire to the building, the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has reported.

Since the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, the Russian border region has repeatedly come under artillery and mortar fire, as well as UAV attacks, by Ukrainian forces.

In a post on his Telegram channel on Saturday, Gladkov wrote that the “the enemy is striking our holy sites again – an enemy drone has attacked Saint George Church in the village of Tolokonnoye,” not far from Belgorod. According to the official, the building’s domes caught fire as a result of the incident.

The governor thanked local self-defense forces for swiftly responding to the attack and extinguishing the flames quickly, which prevented further damage to the church.

In a separate post on Saturday, Gladkov estimated that over the past 24 hours, Kiev’s forces have launched over 40 drones and fired nearly 150 artillery shells at multiple localities in Belgorod Region, resulting in material damage. There have been no reports of casualties.

Last Thursday, the iconic New Jerusalem Orthodox church complex in the region burned down following a Ukrainian drone strike. Commenting on the incident at the time, Gladkov described it as a “deliberate” attack and also accused the Ukrainian military of subsequently targeting the firefighters who were trying to contain the blaze.

The metropolitan bishop of Belgorod Region, Ioann, similarly characterized the attack as “intentional,” saying that Kiev’s troops had deployed incendiary bombs. He also accused Ukrainian forces of targeting the first responders at the scene.

The New Jerusalem complex, a wooden reproduction of biblical Jerusalem, was built in the early 2000s.

In late February, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that “it’s clear that the Kiev regime doesn’t shy away from anything… There’s nothing sacred [for them].”

He made the remarks after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that it apprehended two suspects who had allegedly planned to assassinate Metropolitan Tikhon, the head of the Simferopol and Crimean diocese, with a bomb, presumably at the behest of the Ukrainian intelligence services.

Metropolitan Tikhon is purported to be a close spiritual adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, though neither man has ever confirmed this.

Reuters/RT