Ukrainian service personnel search for drones in the sky over Kyiv, on Aug. 29.Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Ukraine said it shot down two missiles and 60 drones over nine regions in an overnight attack, after Russia stepped up its assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure earlier this week.
More than 2-1/2 years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv is pushing the West for additional air defence and support in jointly shooting down targets over Ukraine to repel such attacks.
On Thursday, Ukraine destroyed 60 out of 74 Russia-launched attack drones and two out of five missiles. The air force said it lost track of 14 more drones, which likely fell on Ukrainian territory.
About 15 drones launched by Russia in its third attack on the Ukrainian capital in four days did not reach their targets, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Thursday.
Drone debris damaged the windows and doors of an apartment building and caused a fire in a non-residential building which was extinguished, Popko said in a statement after the latest Russian air strikes on Ukraine, which were mainly overnight.
Kyiv regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko said the drones caused no damage to critical infrastructure in the Kyiv region, and city and regional authorities reported no casualties.
The Monday attack forced Ukraine to disconnect several nuclear power units from the grid, posing a risk to the nuclear power sector, a Ukrainian mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday.
“The Russian Federation continues to deliberately target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, intending to disrupt the operation of the country’s nuclear power plants, which provide most of Ukraine’s electricity,” the mission said in a note.
“Russian attacks pose a significant risk to the stable operation of nuclear facilities in Ukraine and the safety of millions of people.”
Ukraine has not said that Russia attacked nuclear power plants directly, but hits on transmission and distribution systems have forced the grid operator to reduce production at nuclear power plants or even shut down nuclear units.
The mission said that as a result of Monday’s attack, three out of four power units of the Rivne nuclear power plant were disconnected from the grid.
Another nuclear power plant, the South Ukrainian, was forced to decrease its output.
Falling debris also caused a fire on the grounds of a private enterprise in the central region of Cherkasy, the regional governor said. Some 75 rescuers tackled the fire that had spread over 2,700 square meters (29,00 square feet) by Thursday morning, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, attacked energy facilities across Ukraine on Monday in air strikes which Ukrainian officials said involved more than 200 missiles and drones.