WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian drones attack Kyiv, apartment building hit, seven injured

Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Sunday and injured at least seven people as fragments set an apartment building on fire and damaged homes, officials said.

Timur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said four people requested medical aid after a five-storey apartment building was struck in the Holosiivskyi district just outside the city centre.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the building's exterior was damaged, and three people were injured in other city districts.

Tkachenko had earlier warned that more drones and possibly missile strikes were likely. Reuters witnesses heard anti-aircraft units in operation around the city.

In northeastern Ukraine, Mayor Ihor Terekhov of Kharkiv, the second-biggest city, said drones hit three city districts and damaged a business. Terekhov said many drones remained in the air over the city.

Unofficial Telegram channels reported a fire after a strike on the Black Sea port of Odesa.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Attacks by over 100 Ukrainian drones repelled overnight – MOD

Russian air defenses have eliminated 104 Ukrainian drones in the country’s airspace overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

Belgorod Region, where 74 drones were shot down, was most affected, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday morning.

Bryansk Region saw 24 interceptions, and UAVs were also destroyed in Kursk, Lipetsk, Voronezh and Tula regions, according to the statement.

The ministry did not report any incursions in Moscow Region; the capital has been the main target of Kiev’s drone attacks in recent days.

Ukraine has intensified its UAV raids this week, with 776 UAVs being shot down in Russian airspace between Tuesday and Friday, according to the Defense Ministry.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the incursions had led to one person being killed and injured 20, including four children.

According to the ministry, the continued “terror attacks against civilians” by Kiev’s forces are “an attempt to thwart direct Russia-Ukraine talks facilitated by the US administration [of President Donald Trump], which are designed to settle the conflict definitively.”

The Russian military will respond to the drone raids, but “unlike the Ukrainian side, our targets will be strictly limited to military facilities and defense industry plants,” the Foreign Ministry stressed.

Reuters/RT