Russia launched a surprise drone attack on the capital city of Ukraine, Kyiv, early on Sunday morning, marking the first such attack in 12 days. The attack was carried out by Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones, which were detected and shot down by Ukrainian officials. According to Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv city administration, all of the drones were detected and eliminated before they could cause significant harm.
The attack targeted not only the city of Kyiv but also the surrounding region. Kyiv regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko reported that one person was wounded by falling debris from a destroyed drone. Ukrainian officials did not provide an exact number of drones that attacked the city, but Ukraine’s air force reported that eight Shaheds and three Kalibr cruise missiles were launched by Russian forces across the country.
Meanwhile, in southern Ukraine, a 13-year-old boy was wounded in overnight shelling of the partially occupied province of Kherson. The child was hit by shrapnel while in his village, Mylove, in the Beryslav district. The shelling continued on Sunday morning, wounding four people in the regional capital, Kherson.
In the industrial east of Ukraine, intense fighting continued, with attacks focused around Bakhmut, Marinka, and Lyman in the Donetsk province. Ukraine’s military reported that Russia carried out 27 airstrikes, one missile strike, and about 80 attacks from multiple rocket launchers over the previous 24 hours.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Via Vladimir Putin/Twitter)
In Russia, local officials reported that air defense systems shot down a drone over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, while the neighboring Kursk region faced shelling attacks. No casualties or damage were reported.
The Russian military’s actions in Ukraine were met with defiance from Russian authorities. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership, saying that he had emerged from the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion “having strengthened his position even more both in the country and in the world.” Volodin also claimed that Russian society had shown its maturity in the face of the rebellion.
However, general Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of the Russian group of forces fighting in Ukraine, was believed to have been detained days after the mutiny. It is unclear whether he faces any charges or where he is being held, reflecting the opaque world of the Kremlin’s politics.
Independent observers and analysts say that Putin may come out politically weakened after first announcing that Wagner would face harsh repercussions, only to later say that the group’s forces would not face prosecution. Mr Prigozhin was also allowed to leave Russia for Belarus, raising questions about the true nature of the rebellion and Putin’s response to it.
