KYIV (AFP) — Ukraine on Friday said Russia launched over a hundred drones overnight, wounding at least eight people in the latest in an intensifying string of attacks on the war-torn country.
The wave of attacks comes a day after Russia launched around 90 missiles on Ukraine, cutting power to over a million people.
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement that Russia fired 132 drones, out of which “88 drones were shot down” and “41 were lost, presumably due to defense countermeasures.” It did not specify what happened to the remainder.
Drones were destroyed over a dozen regions, including above the southern region of Odesa.
“Seven people were wounded in a Russian drone attack,” in Odesa, the interior ministry said.
A dozen residential buildings were damaged, said the ministry, publishing photos of burning buildings.
In the capital Kyiv, a drone fell on a polyclinic and injured its security guard, city officials said.
Hypersonic threat
The attack follows President Vladimir Putin’s threat on Thursday to strike “decision-making centers” in Kyiv with Russia’s new hypersonic missile, hours after Moscow pummelled Ukraine’s energy grid in an attack that left a million people without power,
“We do not rule out the use of Oreshnik against the military, military-industrial or decision-making centers, including in Kyiv,” Putin told a press conference in the Kazakh capital Astana, referring to the hypersonic missile.
Kyiv’s government district — an area of the capital where multiple government buildings are located — is protected with intense security, but fears for it have risen over the last week.
Russia tested its new Oreshnik ballistic missile on Ukraine last week, and Putin boasted on Thursday that firing several of the weapons at once would have the equivalent force of a nuclear strike, or a “meteorite” hit.
The Kremlin chief said the overnight barrage was a “response to continued attacks on our territory by (US) ATACMS missiles.”
“As I have said repeatedly, there will always be a response from our side.”