Putin hits Kyiv with ‘unusually complex’ simultaneous attack with drones, cruise and ballistic missiles a day after Zelensky announced he would return from his European tour with new weapons
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Russia launched a brutal drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday morning, just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he would return from a European tour with a replenished arsenal of weapons. The Kyiv City Military Administration said Tuesday’s attack – the eighth on the capital this month and certainly the most intense – involved drones, cruise missiles and likely ballistic missiles launched “from different directions simultaneously”.
Kyiv official Serhiy Popko said the nighttime assault had been “unusually complex and dense”. He said: “The maximum number of rockets were fired at the city in the shortest amount of time…the vast majority of enemy targets in Kiev airspace were detected and destroyed.”
Kiev’s bustling Solomyansky district, home to the international airport, suffered the most severe damage, with a fire breaking out in a non-residential building. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko’s Telegram articles, three people were injured in Solomyansky, while missile debris fell on the leafy suburb of Obolonsky district.
The latest attack on Kiev follows Zelensky’s collection of a series of fresh weapons promises from Berlin, Paris and London, deepening a military arrangement between the West and Ukraine that has helped put Russia back.
After his whirlwind tour of major European capitals, Zelensky tweeted on Monday evening that he was “returning home with new defense packages”. Ukrainian forces are widely believed to be preparing for a long-awaited counter-offensive against Russian troops, with gains already claimed around the Bakhmut flashpoint.
But Zelensky has yet to achieve his coveted goal of enlisting Western fighter jets to take command of the skies, despite British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday announcing plans to open a flight school to train fighters. Ukrainian pilots. France has also offered to train Ukrainian fighter pilots, although President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out sending fighter jets to kyiv.
And while Russia’s ally China vies to act as a peace broker, sending an envoy to Kiev this week, Moscow’s reported attempt to acquire more drones with a military aide to the Iran has provoked ire in Washington. “This is a large-scale defense partnership that harms Ukraine, the Middle East region and the international community,” the spokesman for the United States National Security Council said on Monday. United, John Kirby, adding that new sanctions would soon be announced. Pictured: Zelensky is greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron upon his arrival at the Elysée presidential palace in Paris on May 14, 2023. Read the full article: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ article-ff/Putin-hits-Kyiv-exceptionally-complex-simultaneous-attack-drones-ballistic-missiles.html?ito=msngallery
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