In Kyiv, multiple explosions and machine gun fire could be heard
throughout the night as the Ukrainian capital’s air defenses
fought off a drone attack for five hours.
No casualties were reported in Kyiv or elsewhere, though a
“critical infrastructure object” caught fire in the southern
Mykolaiv region, Gov. Vitalii Kim said, without elaborating.
Russia has increasingly deployed Shahed drones, rather than more
expensive missiles, in its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian
cities since its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February
2022.
It launched more than 1,300 Shahed drones at Ukraine in
September alone — the highest number of drone attacks in a
single month since the war began.
Ukraine, too, has developed a new generation of drones for the
battlefield and for long-range strikes deep inside Russia. More
than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Sunday,
Russian officials said.
Also Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin released a video
marking the second anniversary of the annexation of four
Ukrainian territories and again accused the West of turning
Ukraine into “a military base aimed at Russia.”
Putin was speaking to mark the annexation of the Donetsk,
Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine after a
referendum held in 2022 which was denounced by the West as a
sham. Russia also illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.
Since 2022, Putin said, businesses in the occupied areas are
being “actively restored” and hospitals and schools are being
rebuilt.
Thousands of Ukrainians fled from the four regions as a result
of Russia’s invasion, but Putin said Russia’s military operation
in the country was to defend residents’ “well-being” and the
“future for our children and grandchildren.”
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