Russia unleashed the biggest drone attack against Kyiv of the war so far overnight as the city prepared to mark the annual celebration of its founding. However, according to Ukrainian military officials, almost all the Iranian-made aircraft were shot down.
The air force said it shot down 52 out of 54 Shahed drones launched against the city in successive waves, but falling debris still killed one man, injured two people, and set ablaze the roof of a shopping centre.
The attack appeared to come from the north and south and at low altitudes. A spokesperson from Operational Command South said the Russians appeared to be seeking ways of evading Ukraine’s steadily improving air defences.
“The enemy traditionally used the eastern coast of the Azov Sea to attack, but the routes of these aircraft were somewhat unconventional,” the spokesperson told reporters. “They tried to bypass southern air defences as much as possible … They mostly flew over the temporarily occupied territories and dispersed across Ukraine.
“They are trying to gravitate towards riverbeds to hide the direction of movement of the Shahed groups,” she added. “We continue to study new approaches in tactics to be as effective as possible.”
Military observers have suggested that another goal of the constant stream of Russian air attacks is to exhaust Ukrainian air defence ammunition using cheap Iranian drones. Ukrainian officials have told western capitals that a shortage of anti-aircraft missiles is one of their most pressing concerns, ahead of a planned spring counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces.
The drone attacks came in the early hours of Kyiv Day, the annual celebration of the city’s founding 1,541 years ago, marked by street fairs and live concerts.
“The history of Ukraine is a longstanding irritant for the insecure Russians,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, said on his Telegram channel.
Serhiy Popko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app: “Today, the enemy decided to ‘congratulate’ the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles].
“The attack was carried out in several waves, and the air alert lasted more than five hours.”
In some parts of the city, local people, inured to Russian air raids, stood on their balconies, shouting slogans praising Ukrainian air defences and defying Vladimir Putin and Russia.
During the day, crowds filled the streets of the city centre, where stalls had been set up selling handicrafts, Ukrainian flags and T-shirts. Men and women wore the traditional embroidered blouse, vyshyvanka, in celebration of a summer festival tinged with defiance.
“Pieces of a drone came down just 400 metres from my mother’s house,” said Okseniya, who was selling homemade beaded necklaces. “She is so scared today. But people continue to live their lives because you cannot be affected all the time.
You need to continue to work, meet your friends, eat ice-cream, go to a live event, a concert or a party.
“It’s like the values of your life have changed. You appreciate your life more because you feel like you can die every minute.”
The rifts the invasion has opened up in the Russian leadership were on display on Sunday as the head of the Wagner mercenary group railed against the Kremlin hierarchy, accusing it of imposing a news blackout on him to block his criticisms of the way the war is being pursued.
“Wagner is not a piece of slippery soap which the bureaucrats have got used to shoving all over the place. Wagner is an awl, a stiletto that you cannot hide,” Prigozhin said. “I am absolutely convinced they have forbidden coverage.
“That high-level bureaucrats, those very towers of the Kremlin, are trying to shut the mouths of everyone so that they don’t speak about Wagner will only give another shove to the people.”
Such an approach, he said, would provoke a backlash from the Russian public.
“In the long term, two or three months, they will get a rap on the knuckles from the people for trying to shut everyone’s mouths and ears,” he said.
