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05-05-2023
KYIV: Ukrainian air defences said they downed 18 out of 24 kamikaze drones that Russia launched in a pre-dawn attack on Thursday.
In a statement, Kyiv city administration said that all missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital for the third time in four days, have been destroyed.
“The Russians have attacked Kyiv using Shahed loitering munitions and missiles, likely the ballistic type,” the administration said.
Out of 15 Shahed kamikaze drones fired at the Black Sea coastal city of Odesa, air defences destroyed 12, while three struck a university compound. There were no casualties, the Ukrainian southern military command said.
Russia has regularly bombarded Ukraine since October last year, striking at a variety of targets. The latest blasts were reported less than 24 hours after Kyiv said 21 people died in a Russian strike on the city of Kherson.
Zelensky rejects allegations of attack on Putin
The incident comes a day after the rebuttal by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, of Moscow’s claim that his country attempted to assassinate Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“We didn’t attack Putin (…), we fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities,” Zelensky had told reporters at a press conference with Nordic leaders in Helsinki on Wednesday
“We don’t attack Putin or Moscow. We don’t have enough weapons for this,” he added.
Earlier, Russia said it had shot down two drones targeting Putin’s Kremlin residence in what it called a Ukrainian “terrorist” assassination attempt.
“The devices were put out of action,” a Kremlin statement said.
Moscow said Putin was not hurt and there were no casualties.
Asked about why Moscow would accuse Kyiv, Zelensky replied, “Russia has no victories.”
“He (Putin) can no longer motivate his society and he can no longer send his military to die for nothing,” he said. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
