Alwaght- Moscow launched fresh drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Monday causing “fairly serious” damage in the Kyiv region and leaving three areas without power supply, amid rapid escalation in the protracted war.
The Ukrainian authorities claimed that their air-defense systems shot down most of the drones launched by Russia on Monday.
"During the air alert, 23 enemy UAVs were recorded in the sky above the capital. Air defense destroyed 18 drones," the Kiev city military administration said on social media.
According to Kiev's civil administration, an air raid siren was initially sounded at 1:56 am (2356 GMT) and lasted for just over three hours. A second siren was heard at 5:24 am (0324 GMT) and was called off within a half hour.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that "explosions" had rocked the district of Shevchenkivskyi in the capital's central and the Solomianskyi district in the west.
He said the attack inflicted damage to critical infrastructure facilities, but there were no known casualties.
Ukrainian energy operator DTEK said emergency power cuts will be enforced in Kiev following the attack.
Moscow says the strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure are a response to an explosion on the Kerch bridge linking the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula.
Russia's war on Ukraine started in late February with Moscow, saying that it was aimed at defending the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev.
Ever since the beginning of the war, Ukraine's Western allies, including the European Union and the US, have been supplying large consignments of heavy weaponry to Kiev and slapping Russia with a slew of sanctions. Moscow says such measures will only prolong the war.
