Amid Russian airstrikes, Kyiv downs 20 drones

Kyiv, July 13

Russia attacked Kyiv for the third successive night, wounding four people, and an elderly woman was killed by the shelling in Southern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said. Air defences shot down all 20 drones that attacked Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as two Kalibr missiles in other parts of the country, the air force said.

Two people suffered smoke inhalation during fires caused by the falling debris after the downing of the drones over Kyiv, and two were hurt by shrapnel, the interior ministry said. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person had been killed in a fire overnight but the ministry signalled that the blaze may not have been sparked by falling debris, saying the cause was still being determined.

“This night, Russian terrorists again resorted to a mass attack,” said Ruslan Kravchenko, the governor of the Kyiv region.

A missile and several drones were shot down in the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, damaging several buildings but causing no deaths, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said.

Several hours later, an 85-year-old woman was killed when Russian forces shelled the village of Mykilske in the southern region of Kherson, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, did not comment on the latest attacks. There was no easing of airstrikes while NATO leaders met in Lithuania this week for a summit which Zelenskyy said provided Ukraine with “a foundation of security” for the first time since it gained independence in 1991. — Reuters