According to a senior Ukrainian official, Russia has launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, marking a resumption of hostilities after a 12-day break. Serhiy Popko, a colonel general who heads Kyiv’s military administration, reported the attack on his Telegram channel. He stated that there is no information yet about possible casualties or damage.
Witnesses in Kyiv reported hearing blasts resembling the sound of air defense systems engaging targets. The capital city, along with several central and eastern Ukrainian regions, was placed under air raid alerts for about an hour starting at 2 am local time.
The scale of the attack is not immediately known, but it comes just a day after Ukrainian officials reported more civilian casualties from Russian shelling in the country’s east and south. In the Donetsk region, three civilians were killed and 17 wounded, while in the Kherson region, five people, including a child, were wounded in attacks by Russian forces.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported ongoing fierce clashes in three areas in Donetsk where Russian troops have gathered and attempted to advance. The outskirts of Bakhmut, Lyman, and Marinka were named as front-line hotspots. In the Kherson region, which is already dealing with flooding caused by a dam collapse, Russian forces launched multiple artillery, drone, mortar shell, and rocket attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with top military and atomic energy officials at the Rivne nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s northwest to discuss security measures for the northern regions. Zelensky warned of a “serious threat” at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south and stated that Russia was “technically ready” to provoke a localized explosion at the facility, citing Ukrainian intelligence.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, dismissed the Ukrainian allegations as “simply preposterous.” The Zaporizhzhia plant, located in southern Ukraine, has been occupied by Russia since their invasion in February 2022.
