The Ukrainian Air Force claimed to have intercepted all 16 Russian suicide drones, while Kyiv officials said a government building was partially destroyed.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that 16 Russian suicide drones (UAVs) entered the country from the north and southeast in an early morning raid, emphasizing that the Ukrainian air defenses destroyed all of them.
Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military command, said that a government building was partially destroyed, but it was unclear if there were casualties.
The announcement came hours after anti-aircraft sirens were activated in the capital Kyiv, and the city government also urged residents to take shelter. Witnesses about 20 km from Kyiv heard several explosions, along with the sound of air defense complexes deployed around the city.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on the information. The information comes a day after the Ukrainian military announced it shot down 54 out of 69 cruise missiles launched by Russia into the country.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed that many areas lost power due to a large-scale Russian attack, of which “especially difficult” conditions occurred in the capital Kyiv, the southern cities of Odesa and Kherson. as well as the western city of Lviv, near the border with Poland.
Ukraine’s Minister of Argument Change, Mykhailo Fedorov, on December 28 said that Kyiv is researching and developing UAVs that can attack and knock down enemy UAVs. “I can say that the situation regarding UAVs will change drastically in February-March 2023,” Fedorov said.
Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy and military infrastructure since October, intending to weaken its combat strength and force Kyiv to the negotiating table.
Nearly half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged after months of Russian raids, leaving people without electricity and heating for hours in sub-zero weather.
Ukrainian officials have called Russia out for what they call “war crimes” for targeting civilian infrastructure and defying Ukraine’s will. Russian officials have claimed they struck Ukrainian infrastructure in an effort to halt the transfer of weaponry from the United States and its allies to the Ukrainian capital.