Russia’s drone attack on Kyiv injures 11, sparks residential fires, Ukraine says

KYIV: Russia’s overnight drone attack on Kyiv injured at least 11 people, including two children, and set several residential buildings throughout the city on fire, 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.

Ukraine’s emergency service said on the Telegram messaging app that 76 firefighters were involved in putting out the overnight fires in Kyiv, which also included a small blaze in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district.

It posted photos of firefighters battling large blazes at night at what seemed like a residential building.

The emergency service also said that several cars across the city caught fire from falling drone debris.

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).

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There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the attack that took place amid uncertainty over whether both sides would 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.

Ukraine’s emergency service said that one person was injured in that attack which sparked fires at residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.