While the world’s attention has been focused on the Middle East since Israel’s overnight killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh at one of his residences in Tehran, resulting in the the potential for bigger regional war, Ukraine’s air force has said it repelled one of the largest Russian drone assaults of the conflict.
An overnight attack by Russia resulted in a reported 89 drones and one missile being intercepted over the Kyiv region. It marks perhaps the single biggest drone attack ever focused on the capital region, with Kyiv city administration head Serhiy Popko also describing “one of the most massive drone attacks on Ukraine during the entire war.”
Explosions were also reported over the other Ukrainian regions of Mykolayiv, Dnipro, Sumy and Poltava. Ukraine’s military identified many of the inbound projectiles in the capital region as Iran-made Shahed-131/136 strike drones. “Today Ukrainian air defense withstood and repelled a massive attack by enemy drones,” an air force statement said.
There have been at least half a dozen prior drone attacks, albeit on a much smaller scale, on the area in the month of July. This latest sent over 11,000 people into the safety of metro stations during the assault in which drones came in multiple waves from “all possible directions,” city authorities said.
