Russia launched a wave of airstrikes in Kiev just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the country's air defense units for saving hundreds of lives by shooting down Russian drone and missile fire aimed at the capital and beyond.
Kiev's air defense systems opened fire on incoming targets early Tuesday, city officials said, as air raid sirens blared in several areas. "Massive attack!" Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. "Don't leave the shelters."
Klitschko said the 27-year-old woman was taken to a hospital in the southwestern Holosiivsk district after receiving injuries. He later said that one person was killed in the latest Russian airstrike. Officials of Kiev's military administration said anti-aircraft systems attacked and destroyed incoming munitions, and falling debris hit several areas of the capital, including the historic districts of Podil and Pechersk.
Klitschko said residents of the high-rise were evacuated early Tuesday morning after falling debris caused a fire. Serhii Popko, the head of Kiev's military administration, who called it a "massive" attack in several waves, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russia carried out the attack using Iranian-made Shahed drones, and more than 20 were shot down. .
Tuesday's attack - the third in a day - is Russia's 17th airstrike on the capital this month, after two attacks on Monday that included a rare daylight attack that forced people to seek shelter underground and sent schoolchildren fleeing the streets of Kiev for safety.
In a speech Monday evening, Zelensky said that while some of the Russian airstrikes, which he called "evil," had managed to penetrate Ukraine's defenses, most of the drones and missiles had been shot down.
"The world needs to see that terror is disappearing," the Ukrainian leader said, calling for more aid to further improve the country's defenses. There is no greater humiliation for a terrorist state than the success of our military," he added, on the day Russia fired 11 ballistic and cruise missiles into Kiev against Ukrainian air defenses, said the top commander of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported that Russia launched 11 Iskander ballistic missiles, 38 Shahed drones and 40 cruise missiles during the night attack on Sunday and Monday, and during the daytime attack on Monday. 
The airstrike campaign shows that Russia is trying to undermine Ukraine's ability to launch an expected offensive to regain territory lost to Russia, but "prioritizing targeting Kiev is likely to further limit the campaign's ability to significantly limit potential Ukrainian counterattacks," the institute says. said Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat claimed that US-supplied Patriot missile defense systems were behind the successful interception of incoming Iskander ballistic missiles and other weapons. I think you can guess, Ihnat told Ukrainian television. "If the Iskander-M missiles are intercepted, you can draw conclusions about the means that specifically targeted the targets - ballistic targets."
In his message on Monday evening, Zelenskyy also raised the Patriot system, saying that with such protection "terror will be defeated".
Source: Aljazeera
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