Locals run for cover as Russia attacks Kyiv with ‘kamikaze’ drones

Kyiv’s mayor said “several Russian rockets” had been downed over the Ukrainian capital after loud explosions were heard in the city on Wednesday. 

“Air defences have shot down several Russian rockets over Kyiv. Stay in shelters!” Vitali Klitschko said on social media.

On Monday, Russian attacks with Iranian-made drones aimed at energy infrastructure killed at least five people in Kyiv.

Kyiv region governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, wrote on social media that air defences were also working in the area.

“It’s not as scary as it was in February [the beginning of the invasion], in fact, the more these kamikaze drones, the more missiles are launched, the more I just get angry,” said Olga, an archaeologist, sheltering in a Kyiv underpass. 

Ukraine’s military command in the north said on Facebook that another “two missiles” had been shot down in Chernigiv region, neighbouring Kyiv.

Fresh strikes on energy infrastructure were also reported in the Vinnytsia region in central Ukraine.

“The enemy is hitting energy facilities. There are hits in the Vinnytsia region. Rescue services are on site,” governor Sergiy Borzov said on Telegram.

Earlier on Wednesday Ukraine said its military had shot down more than 220 Iranian-made drones in a little more than one month, following this week’s attacks that used “kamikaze drones”.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has called Russia’s strikes “acts of pure terror” that amount to war crimes.

“Targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure with the clear aim to cut off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with the winter coming, these are acts of pure terror and we have to call it as such,” she said.