At least 23 people were injured as Russia launched record high number of drones on Kyiv on Friday night, damaging infrastructure, setting buildings and cars on fire.
Russia launched a record 539 drones, of which 476 were intercepted, as well as 11 cruise and ballistic missiles on Friday, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. The attack, which lasted 13 hours, damaged six of Kyiv’s ten districts on both sides of Dnipro river, which separates the city, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. Twelve of the injured were hospitalized. Falling debris burned a medical facility in Holosiivskyi district, and also damaged residential buildings.
Ukraine’s state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia, said the attack on Kyiv damaged railway infrastructure in the city, disrupting the work of a number of passenger trains and causing delays.
In turn, Kyiv launched drone attacks near Russia’s capital Moscow on Friday morning, injuring at least one person in the city of Sergiyev Posad and causing explosions in four locations, the head of the district Oksana Yerokhanova said. Another drone attack on Russia’s Rostov region killed one person, Yury Slyusar, the acting governor of the region, said on Telegram early on Friday.
The exchange of drones came hours after US President Donald Trump said that the phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin earlier on Thursday resulted in no progress at efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed his willingness to speak to Trump after the White House’s decision to halt shipment of certain weapons to Ukraine.
