Russia launches air raid on Kyiv ‘exceptional’ in intensity

KYIV, May 16 (Reuters) – Russia launched an exceptionally intense air attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, using drones, cruise and probably ballistic missiles, city officials said, as the Ukrainian capital suffered its eighth air raid this month.

“It was exceptional in its density – the maximum number of attack missiles in the shortest period of time,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.

“According to preliminary information, the vast majority of enemy targets in the airspace of Kyiv were detected and destroyed!”

It was not immediately known how many objects were shot down over the city and if any of them managed to hit their target.

After a weeks-long hiatus, Russia in late April resumed its tactic of long-range missile strikes and has launched a flurry of attacks in recent days, often targeting Kyiv. Ukraine has been able to repel vast majority of the attacks so far.

On Tuesday, falling debris was reported in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, Solomyanskyi and Darnytskyi districts, officials said.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said falling debris set several cars on fire and damaged a building in the Solomyanskyi district in the capital’s west. Three people were injured.

Klitschko said that south of Boryspil, air defence systems were repelling a drone attack. Boryspil, a city just southeast of Kyiv, is home to the capital’s main passenger airport, which is now closed.

The damage in other districts was not significant and there was no immediate information on potential casualties there, the military administration said.

Air raid sirens blared across nearly all of Ukraine in the early hours of Tuesday, and were heard over Kyiv and its region for more than three hours.

(This story has been refiled to correct the byline)

Reporting by Gleb Garanich and Sergiy Karazy in Kyiv;
Writing Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Christopher Cushing

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