Tracers are seen in the night sky as Ukrainian servicemen fire at the drone during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine in Kyiv on Wednesday (October 30, 2024).
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 62 drones overnight, but air defence units destroyed 33 of them over Kyiv and other regions, although 25 were unaccounted for.

“Nine people were injured, several apartments were set ablaze and a kindergarten was damaged in Russia’s 19th attack on the Ukrainian capital this month,” officials in Kyiv said on Wednesday (October 30, 2024).

“Nineteen air attacks on Kyiv in October!” Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app. “Overnight, Russian drones again flew over the capital.”

“Falling debris from a destroyed drone sparked a fire in a multi-storey apartment building in Kyiv’s western district of Solomianskyi and injured at least nine people, including an 11-year-old girl,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

“All of them were treated by medics on the spot,” Mr. Klitschko said.

Nineteen people were evacuated from the building, said the city’s military administration, which also posted photographs of a building with blown-out windows and damaged facade that it described as a kindergarten in Solomianskyi.

Reuters witnesses at the scene saw firefighters scrambling to douse flames at flats in an apartment building with several windows blown out.

Air raid alerts sounded across Kyiv, the surrounding region and nearly the whole eastern half of Ukraine for more than two hours overnight.

A view shows an apartment building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on October 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukraine’s air defences downed 41 of 80 Russian drones launched overnight, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday (October 27, 2024).

The air force said it lost track of 32 drones but gave no further details.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukrainian air force said on Friday (October 11, 2024) it shot down 29 out of 66 Russian drones launched overnight.

Moscow also launched two missiles, it added, and 31 drones were “locationally lost”, likely due to electronic warfare.

Two more drones returned toward Russian territory, the air force said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and said the operation was part of Kyiv’s drive to restore justice after Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Russia said Ukrainian forces pushed into Kursk region last Tuesday and Russian military bloggers have acknowledged they made some headway, while saying the situation had since stabilised.

Zelensky had previously stayed silent about the operation.

In his nightly video address, the president said he had discussed the operation with top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, while not forgetting the battles troops face on the difficult eastern front.

“Today, I received several reports from commander-in-chief Syrskyi regarding the front lines and our actions to push the war onto the aggressor’s territory,” he said.

“I am grateful to every unit of the defence forces for ensuring that. Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor.”

Zelensky had previously alluded to the operation, praising the military’s ability “to surprise” and thanking them for taking Russian soldiers prisoner to be used in future negotiations, specifically referring to the past week.

In paying tribute to Ukrainian forces along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front line, Zelensky made special mention of actions in northern Sumy region, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region.

Russia has stepped up its attacks of guided bombs and other aerial strikes in Sumy, prompting mass evacuations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)