KYIV (Reuters) -A Russian 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 the central Shevchenkivskyi district.
It posted photos of firefighters battling large blazes at night at what appeared to be a residential building.
The emergency service also said that several cars across the city were set alight by falling drone debris.
Reuters’ witnesses heard several explosions in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.
The Ukrainian military said its air defence units shot down 69 of 165 drones launched by Russia overnight.
It said on Telegram that 80 drones were lost, in a reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them, or they were drone simulators that did not carry warheads.
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.
In addition to Kyiv, drones attacked Cherkasy in central Ukraine, where according to national television 15 of the 22 drones targeting the city were shot down.
“The regional centre was hit the hardest. Residential infrastructure, furniture factory warehouses, a trading centre and garden buildings were damaged,” governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram.
Ukraine’s emergency service said that one person was injured in that attack which sparked fires at residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
(Reporting by Valentyn Ogirenko, Christian Lowe, Pavel Polityuk and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Daniel Wallis and Toby Chopra)
