Ukraine says it has repelled massive Russian drone attack | Russia-Ukraine war News

Russia launches one of the biggest aerial barrages in months but Ukraine says no critical infrastructure hit.

Ukraine’s air force says it has repelled one of the largest aerial barrages launched by Russia on its territory in months.

The air force said on Wednesday that it shot down all the incoming projectiles – 89 drones and one missile – launched by Russia overnight, the attack mainly targeting the central region of Kyiv.

Kyiv’s military administration said more than 40 of the drones were downed over the capital, Kyiv, and its outskirts.

There was some damage to buildings as a result of falling debris, but no casualties were reported.

“Today Ukrainian air defence withstood and repelled a massive attack by enemy drones,” the air force said in a statement, identifying them as “Shahed-131/136 strike drones”.

Kyiv and most of central and eastern Ukraine were under air raid alerts from 20:00 GMT on Tuesday.

Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the latest drone attack was the seventh conducted against the city in July.

About 11,500 residents sheltered for safety in metro stations overnight as the drones came in several waves from “all possible directions”, the city authorities said.

Russia fires drones and missiles at Ukraine on an almost nightly basis. It says it is targeting military and energy facilities, but attacks on residential areas are frequent. Ukraine accuses Russia of directly targeting civilians, which Moscow denies.

Nuclear drills

Russia’s Ministry of Defence on Wednesday announced that the country has begun the third stage of drills to practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons.

Russia held the first stage of the drills in May and ally Belarus joined the second stage in June.

Since sending thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Russia could use nuclear weapons to defend itself in extreme situations.

Russia says the United States and its European allies are pushing the world to the brink of nuclear confrontation by giving Ukraine billions of dollars worth of weapons, some of which are being launched into Russian territory.

The deputy spokesman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Nastasin, said on Wednesday that an ammunition factory being built by German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall in Ukraine would be considered a “legitimate target” for the Russian military.

Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday that it had struck a weapons and military equipment storage facility in Russia’s Kursk region overnight.

The Kursk region’s acting governor said on Telegram that air defences had destroyed four Ukrainian missiles over two districts.