Russia launched its sixth airstrike this month on Kyiv early Tuesday morning, the Ukrainian capital’s military administration said. Air raid alarms blared for more than three hours over the city and the eastern half of the country.
The Russian attack was carried out with Iranian-made Shahed drones and, according to preliminary information, all the drones were shot down by Ukraine’s air defense systems, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said via Telegram.
According to the official, this is “already the sixth drone attack in the capital this month.” On July 13, the authorities reported that nighttime drone attacks on Kyiv had left at least one dead and four injured.
Beyond the capital, air-raid sirens sounded for more than three hours across most of eastern Ukraine from around 1:40 a.m. m., said the country’s Air Force.
At 5:30 a.m., the Air Force said on its Telegram channel that there was a new threat of strikes in the eastern and southeastern regions of Ukraine with ballistic weapons and issued airstrike warnings for those areas.
On Monday, Russia said it was considering “severe retaliation” after Ukraine-claimed drone strikes in Moscow and Crimea, accusing the West of being “behind the brazen acts” of Kyiv.
The Russian army, which denounced a “terrorist act”, claimed that two drones had been neutralized and had crashed without causing any casualties in Moscow.
The attack on the Russian capital was “a special GUR operation,” a Ukrainian defense source told AFP who requested anonymity.
This rare claim by Kyiv, which generally denies or does not comment on these events, came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised retaliatory measures following Russian bombing attacks over the weekend in the port city of Odessa, the main gateway for Ukrainian grain to the international market, that killed two people and devastated a cathedral.
The Moscow region had not been targeted by drones for almost three weeks.