Drones strike Kyiv in escalated Russian assault

Russia hit Ukraine’s capital city early Monday, battering Kyiv with drones as Moscow escalates a campaign to come back from Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive.  

“Every night and every morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an update on Telegram, noting that a residential building in the capital was hit.   

Russia appeared to reel from a number of battlefield setbacks and frustration on the home front after Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to call up reservists to the conflict and now seems to be taking aim at infrastructure, harming civilians. 

Russia pounded Kyiv with 28 drones, killing at least three, the capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said in a Telegram post, according to translations. Among those killed were a young couple expecting a child.  

Ukraine shot down a number of drones, Klitschko said, but five blasts could be heard in the capital city.  

Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the president of Ukraine, confirmed that Kyiv was hit by Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones and called for international support to bolster the country’s air defense systems.

“The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations. And we will get victory,” Zelensky said in his announcement of the strikes.

Updated at 8:17 a.m.